


More Than Bread

by Taliax



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: AU, Adventure, Dark, Family, Friendship, Gen, Science Experiments, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-12-15
Updated: 2015-04-23
Packaged: 2018-03-15 08:47:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 19,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3440876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taliax/pseuds/Taliax
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At first it was just about staying alive. Safety. Food. But some things are more important than that.  Like the crazy, Heartless-fighting family Saix has somehow become a part of.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story is some weird mix between canon and AU. It’s set in Radiant Garden, but it’s not the exact same Radiant Garden from the games, and Saïx and Axel are somebodies. The Gardens are still being taken over by Heartless. Everything else should be eventually explained if you read. C:
> 
> This was originally meant to be my entry for “Bread” in Raberba girl’s “Other Kinds of Love” challenge, but it got so big that I had to split it up into multiple chapters, so I decided it would work better as a completely different story.

Saïx’s sensitive ears picked up the sound of metallic clanging outside, jolting his focus away from his Astronomy homework.  His first instinct was to immediately dive from his chair and hide underneath his desk, not because of fear, but because of protocol.  They practiced the Heartless attack drill at least once a week at school.  Obviously there wasn’t a Heartless in his room, and he had always found the drills useless – he doubted Heartless would ignore them simply because they hid – but the late night of cataloguing the constellations outside his window had made him tense.  He went back to work.

Clanging again.  Heartless weren’t usually that noisy.  _Maybe a stray cat?_ He theorized. 

But cats didn’t shout curses.

_What idiot would be out at this time of night?_ Nobody in Radiant Garden would venture outside after dark, not with the Heartless appearances at record high.  Most of his neighbors were older and didn’t leave their houses often even in the day, and his parents were so tired after coming home from work that they could’ve slept through a hurricane.

The clanging and cursing continued – how was Saïx supposed to concentrate on his homework with all that noise?  Curiosity urged him to investigate the potentially-hostile person.

_Just let the Heartless take care of him,_ his logical side said.  _With all that noise, they will appear in no time._  

But he didn’t want Heartless lurking around his house, either.  Sighing, he went downstairs and donned his coat and boots after failing to locate the person through his window, even using his telescope.  Just to be safe, he took the poker from the fireplace, too.

_I’ll just take a glance and assess the situation,_ Saïx reasoned.  If the stranger appeared mostly harmless, maybe he could scare him off.

Poker held out like a sword, Saïx sneaked out the front door, closed it silently behind him, and hid his anxiety.  The fresh snow absorbed the sound of his footsteps as he crept around the side of the house, which the porch light barely lit.  But it wasn’t entirely necessary.  The stranger, clearly a teenage male from the sound of his irritated complaining, was making enough noise to conceal him.

“Who locks up their _trash,_ for Kingdom Hearts’ sakes?  It’s not like they’re using it!”

Saïx froze, watching the probably-mentally-disturbed teenager try to pulverize the lock on the trashcan with a pair of metal Frisbees.  No, not probably, he _had_ to be insane.  How could he survive this freezing weather without any kind of coat?  His dirty t-shirt hung loosely on him, and Saïx imagined that if he were to look under it he could count his ribs.  A matted explosion of red hair whipped in the biting wind, but the teenager barely seemed to feel it.

Eventually his sharp-edged Frisbee missed and clanged off of the metal trashcan, shocking Saïx out of his confusion.

“Are you trying to get yourself killed?”  He demanded, poker now held loosely at his side.  Even though the stranger looked wild, there was something about his desperation that told Saïx that the other boy was more scared than he was.

Jumping like he’d been shot, the redhead threw a Frisbee at Saïx.  If he’d been any slower, it would’ve cut a gash in his coat.  He bared the poker again.

“Oh, it’s just a kid.”  The stranger laughed in relief, not looking at all intimidated.  “Don’t bother with these trashcans, I can’t get them open.”

Saïx blinked.  Who was this guy?  “I suggest you leave my property immediately.”

The stranger frowned, slinging his remaining Frisbee over his shoulder, and took a better look at Saïx.  “You’re not – wait – you _live_ here?”

“Obviously,” Saïx replied bluntly.

“But you’re a kid.”

“I’m about as old as you,” Saïx pointed out.  “Why is that significant?”

“ ‘Cause this is an Old People street, _obviously,”_ the stranger mimicked.  “But hey, if you live here, you got any food?”

Saïx put the pieces together and was taken aback.  “You were looking for food in my garbage?”

The stranger’s eyes grew dark.  “You rich people waste enough to feed us for days.”

“Us?”  Saïx asked.  Who was he?  And why did he think Saïx was rich?  Yes, his family had a fairly stable income… which must be better than how most were faring under these circumstances… but they weren’t wealthy.  They just had what they needed.

The stranger walked behind Saïx and picked up his other Frisbee.  “My name’s Axel.  Got it memorized?”

“…I’ll remember that.”  Saïx hoped he wouldn’t need to.  This “Axel” needed to leave before they attracted any Heartless—

As if drawn by his thought, a group of Shadows melted from the darkness at the edges of the porch light’s glow.  He had seen pictures, heard stories, but nothing could prepare him for their monstrous forms and glowing yellow eyes.  His heart froze – were they stealing it already? – and his body froze along with it.  Their claws groped hungrily for his feet.

Axel destroyed one with a single hit from his Frisbee, muttering a curse.  “I thought this street might be clean.”

“Nowhere in Radiant Garden is,” Saïx said, trying not to show his fear.  Axel looked annoyed, but not scared.  From what Saïx could piece together, this was a normal occurrence for him.

“Well, we’ll fix that.”  Axel grinned.  “You might want to stand back.”

When the Heartless emerged from their shadowy pools, Axel became a red-haired blur, his Frisbees wheels of destruction that sliced cleanly through the Shadows, sending them back to the Realm of Darkness.  A few escaped and lunged at Saïx, who knocked them back with his poker.  He was surprised to find that their bodies had the density of molasses under a skin of mist; his poker kept sticking in their chests.  It was easier to avoid that problem when he held the unorthodox weapon backhand, though he was nowhere near Axel’s skill level.  He only took on the enemies that directly attacked him.

They ended up back-to-back, retreating until they were directly under the porch light’s glare.  There couldn’t have been that many Shadows earlier.  Some Darkballs even entered the mix.  They seemed to be waiting, sizing the boys up to decide if their hearts were worth the trouble.

“We’re going to die,” Saïx said dryly.  Axel laughed, a hint of hysteria entering his voice.

“You’ve never even fought before, and that’s all you’re gonna say?”

“Would you rather I start screaming?”

“Heh, I like your attitude.  Can I get your name in case we die horribly?”

“It’s Saïx.”

“Okay then, Saïx.  Let’s give ‘em one heck of a show!”

Axel flung himself at the horde, and the Heartless lashed back.  No going back now.

Saïx tried to stay on the defensive, monitoring the Heartless’ attack patterns and dodging when they were about to strike.  It was terrifying.  He never knew – never _imagined_ – that he would come face-to-face with the monsters in combat.  If he could have fled, he would have.  _I’m such a coward,_ he thought, but he kept stabbing the Shadows.  Kept fighting.  Maybe he wasn’t a coward after all.  If he was a coward, he would be dead by now.

And he wasn’t doing an awful job.  He made sure to cover Axel’s back, just as the redhead stayed close enough to protect him from the hungry darkness.  Careful as Saïx tried to be, though, the chaos of battle overwhelmed him; he was good for a novice, but not good enough.  There were too many; he wasn’t fast enough; those beady yellow eyes were getting to him; the pungent smell of darkness clouded his exhausted thoughts; he couldn’t keep his fear locked tight and now it blurred his focus.  He slipped on a patch of ice.

A Shadow leapt at his face, raking claws of darkness diagonally from his forehead to his cheek.  He thought he heard a howl – probably his – but he wasn’t aware of himself.  The clouds rolled away from the moon.

_Blood roaring. Vision reddening. Slashing.  Bashing.  Destroying._   _Darkness in his veins._ He wasn’t in control of himself; some other power took over his limbs.  Everything blurred and sharpened simultaneously.  So much pain, but it only fuelled his rage. 

The next moment he was truly conscious of, he had collapsed on his knees in the snow.  There were no Heartless, and no sound except for Axel screaming his name.

“Saïx!  _Saïx!_ C’mon, don’t go off and die on me now!”  Axel’s hands felt like claws as he shook him by the shoulders.

Saïx groaned.  “That was painful.”

“You took on _all of them!”_ Axel yelled.  Too loud.  Saïx’s vision swam, he only caught bits and pieces of dialogue. “—thought you were _dead_ , you should be dead after doing something that stupid—I woulda taken them – not gonna watch anyone else die—”

“Who died?”  Saïx asked, struggling to stand.  His face burned; he felt two gashes now instead of one.  When he touched them, wet blood stained his fingers red, like warm paint.  Oh.  That’s why he was so dizzy.  Axel caught him when he almost collapsed again.

“I’ll tell you later, right now let’s keep _you_ from dying.”  Axel pulled out a glowing green bottle.  “Here, drink this.”

Saïx eyed it dubiously.  It looked radioactive.

“What, you never seen a potion?”  Axel asked.  Saïx hadn’t, and his mom was a doctor, which only made him more skeptical.  “Don’t worry about how it looks.  It’ll make you feel better, trust me.”

Well, it was his best option.  Probably.  Anything to make the fire in his face go away.

It tasted bitter on the way down, but it left a warm fuzzy feeling in his stomach.  His wounds instantly faded to a dull ache, many of them vanishing completely.  He could stand again.

“That’s gonna scar.” Axel pointed to the crossed cuts on the bridge of Saïx’s nose.

“How will I explain that to my parents?”  He wondered aloud.  He still couldn’t process it himself… it wasn’t like he had great pride in his looks, but to have permanent gashes marring his face…  If nothing else, it would always be a reminder.  He would never be able to forget about the nightmarish fight or the insane redhead.  He already wished he could delete the memory, maybe even delete Axel, who had caused all this mess…

“Hey…”   Axel carefully pulled him out of the snow, then shifted his meager weight nervously from foot to foot.  “I’m sorry.  Really.  Just add this one to the long list of Axel Hearth’s mistakes…”

…No, Saïx honestly didn’t want Axel erased.  The Heartless he definitely wanted gone, but not the other teenager.  After going through a battle with him… he felt some pity.  Sympathy.  This was Axel’s normal life.  He hadn’t meant to drag Saïx into it.

“You didn’t summon them,” he said.

“But you wouldn’t have been out here if I wasn’t trying to break into your trash cans.”  Axel grimaced.  “I’m sick of getting other people hurt…”

Saïx wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so he asked, “Are you still hungry?”

He laughed hollowly.  “You kidding?  I’m always hungry.”

“Then follow me.”

They sneaked back inside.  Axel seemed amazed just to be inside a house; he kept pausing to stare at things like the oven and washing machine and Saïx’s bed.  Saïx retrieved his skinniest pair of pants and a longsleeved shirt from his closet, both of which would still be too big for Axel’s stick-like frame, but at least he would stay warmer.  Meanwhile, the redhead stuffed his face with one of Saïx’s mom’s fresh loaves of bread.

“This ish sho _goosh,”_ he said with his mouth full, attacking the bread with more force than he’d used on the Heartless.  “Who made thish?” 

Saïx frowned in disapproval.  “My mom.  Don’t get crumbs on the floor.”  His parents never allowed him to eat in his bedroom, but he decided it was a better option than making noise in the kitchen, which was closer to their room.

Axel swallowed and belched loudly.  “Hey, when you live on the street you’ve got better things to worry about than table manners.  Like having stuff to put _on_ the table.”

“So… you live out there,” Saïx said, wiping the remaining blood off of his face with a warm washcloth. He could barely tell it had originally been white afterwards. “With the Heartless.”  It sounded like suicide.  But they’d survived one night.

Axel shook his head, still tearing into the bread.  “ _Around_ the Heartless.  Not with them.”

“But you live with someone.”  He’d mentioned an “us” before, and he talked too much for a complete loner.

He nodded, but didn’t say anything more.  Saïx decided he would give him some time before prying.

When Axel finished eating (leaving surprisingly few crumbs), Saïx gave him the clothes.

“Use the shower down the hall; I won’t have you staying here covered in filth.”  He wasn’t sure how long he planned for Axel to stay.  He wouldn’t make him go back out in the dark, but he couldn’t hide another teenager in his house without his parents noticing…  besides, he didn’t know how long he could put up with the redhead.

Axel grinned.  “You got any spare underwear in here?”

Saïx glared.  Axel was only proving his point.  “That is a line I will not cross.”

Laughing, Axel left to hit the shower.  Saïx wasn’t sure what to do without the semi-obnoxious redhead to keep an eye on.  He managed to answer one question on his homework, but he could hardly focus when his mind was working to piece together Axel’s story.  He knew some parts of Radiant Garden were collapsing more quickly than others, but he still couldn’t picture kids living on the streets.  Axel must be an orphan… but then who did he live with?

And what was the deal with his Frisbees?  Axel had left them on Saïx’s bed.  Each had a picture of a flame with an evil grin embossed on the front.  They weren’t perfectly circular, nor did they look particularly aerodynamic.  Were they Frisbees at all, or were they _meant_ to be used as weapons?  Where did Axel get them?

Saïx paced the floor, lost in thought until he realized how long Axel had been gone.  Of course, it might take hours to clean all his grime off; he probably hadn’t had a shower in months, and that was being generous.  Still, paranoia made him check.  He could still hear the water running, but the bathroom door was open. 

“Axel?”

The room was abandoned.

_What?_ After shutting off the water, he ran a quick reconnaissance of the house and found the pantry open as well.  The only things that appeared to be missing were a few boxes of pasta, spaghetti sauce, and the last of his mom’s bread.  In the space where the food had been was a scribbled note:

_Sorry, Sai.  Gotta feed my family._

_P.S.  Dont bother looking for the sea-salt ice cream._

_P.S.S.  Tell your mom her breads delishous._

Saïx crumpled the note, an aggravated growl starting deep in his throat, and not just at Axel’s lack of grammatical skills.  After they’d fought side by side and he had _tried_ to be hospitable, which didn’t come naturally to him, Axel just took off with his food?

_Maybe he lied about all of it,_ Saïx thought.  _All of it but his lack of food, at least._ But he couldn’t do anything about it.  Axel would be long gone, and even if he wasn’t, Saïx wasn’t about to go out in the dark again.

_I still have his Frisbees,_ he realized.  They were in his room.

Axel would have to come back, and when he did, Saïx might just use his berserker powers on him.


	2. Chapter 2

Saïx never did finish his homework, for the first time in his life.  He didn’t plan on it the next night, either; he focused completely on keeping watch from his bedroom window.  It didn’t give him the best view of the side of the house where Axel had first appeared, but he could see most of the street.  With luck he would be able to make it downstairs in time, and with more luck his parents would be too tired from their respective jobs to keep watch for “thieves” like they had said they would.

Every once in a while, a stray Shadow would materialize in one of the neighbors’ yards, scamper into the road, and disappear under the streetlight.  Even from the second story Saïx could see their horrible eyes.  Sometimes Darkballs would appear, which were even worse.  Saïx swore their spine-chilling chatterings weren’t in his imagination.

Had there always been this many Heartless out there, the only thing keeping them out of the house a locked door?  Or had he and Axel drawn them out by fighting back?

_That would be one more problem he caused,_ Saïx thought.  Still, part of him recalled the adrenaline rush of fighting back-to-back, how for some unfathomable reason he had trusted someone he’d just met.

He didn’t have time to dwell on it now – a human figure dashed down the street, cutting through the few stray shadows with… what were those?  Had Axel gotten new Frisbees?  If so, why was he coming back?

Saïx crept down the stairs as quickly as he could.  No sounds came from below.  He was so concerned with confronting Axel that he foolishly neglected to put on his coat or grab the poker.

“Hey, long time no see.”

Saïx found himself face-to-face with Axel’s grin the moment he stepped into the cold.  He’d been waiting right outside the door – had he planned to break in?  Or maybe he thought Saïx was gullible enough to let him in again.

“What are you doing here?”  He bit back with icy bluntness.

Axel’s grin faltered.  Saïx noticed purple upside-down tear markings below his eyes for the first time, probably because his face was no longer so grimy.  “I came back to say sorry.”

Saïx crossed his arms.

“Honest!”  Axel raised his hands to show his innocence, but his new circular weapons ruined the effect.  They looked about ten times as dangerous as his old Frisbees.  “I wanted to say bye, but my family- I didn’t know if you’d let me leave, and I couldn’t leave them alone with empty stomachs.”

“You expect me to believe you returned solely to apologize?”  Saïx kept his eyes on the spiked weapons.  “And I believe you owe me an explanation about your family.”

Axel scratched his head, still holding the Circles of Death.  “…Well, yeah.  I do owe you.  And I didn’t come _just_ to apologize.”  He grinned impishly.  “Rox!  Xi!”

Two small figures in long coats dashed out of the darkness and onto the porch, carrying a large sword-like weapon between them.  The barely-taller one threw off his hood, revealing a mess of blonde spikes that looked like mud-gelled bed hair.

“This is the guy who killed all those Heartless?”  He asked, looking at Saïx like he expected him to go berserk right now.  “You said he wasn’t scary.”

“He doesn’t look _that_ scary.”  The other one removed her hood as well and revealed bright blue eyes that were mirror images of the boy’s.

“Well, those scars added a few intimidation points,” Axel said with a shrug.

“I’ll choose not to be offended by your tactlessness,” Saïx replied to the odd trio.  “Rox” and “Xi” must have been the family Axel had referred to.  Maybe he had brought them to prove he was telling the truth, but it seemed awfully irresponsible to bring two children – they looked about ten, at the very oldest – out in Heartless territory.  “What are those weapons?”

Axel grinned, twirling his spiked metal wheels dramatically.  _“These_ are chakrams.”  He then gestured to the oddly-shaped blade in the two kids’ hands.  The blue-tinted metal seemed to absorb the moon’s aura.  “And _that_ is a claymore.”

“You better like it, ‘cause it took all our synthesis materials,” the boy grumbled.

The black haired girl gave him a _‘don’t be rude’_ look.  “Axel’s chakrams used some of them.”

Axel flicked one of the boy’s matted hair-spikes.  “We collected plenty of synthesis materials from the Heartless last night, so stop complaining and give the Werewolf his reward for not dying.”

Saïx was at somewhat of a loss for words about the ‘Werewolf’ comment, but he accepted the claymore when it was handed to him.  It was all so sudden and unexpected, like a whole new world was being thrust upon him.  “Who exactly are you people?”  How in the worlds had they gotten these weapons?

Axel laughed, something he seemed to do oddly often considering their less-than-humorous circumstances.  “It’s not like me to forget introductions.  That grumpy blonde kid-”

“Hey!”  Said grumpy blonde kid interjected.

“-is Roxas.  He’s not so bad once you get to know him.”

Roxas crossed his arms poutily, and the girl giggled.

“And that happy little girl is Xion,” Axel finished, ruffling her hair.

“Why are you always nicer to her?” Roxas complained.

“ ‘Cause she’s not as whiny as you,” Axel teased and ruffled his hair, too.  He stuck out his tongue.

“And these are your siblings?”  Saïx asked, reversing his grip on his claymore and holding it behind him.  They had seriously given him a powerful-looking weapon like this just for “not dying”?

“Not by blood,” Axel admitted.

“But we’re still siblings,” Roxas said, his expression daring anyone to say otherwise.

Xion put her small arms as far as they would reach around both of them.  “Always.”

Saïx felt out of place with such a tightly-knit makeshift family.  At least he knew why Axel had taken advantage of him now; he could already tell that the redhead would to anything for the two younger kids.  Not that that necessarily justified thievery.

He wasn’t sure what question to ask next.  “You didn’t steal this, did you?”  He finally decided, holding out the claymore again.  The tip of the blade was spiked almost like a two-dimensional mace, and the careful craftsmanship was beyond anything Saïx had ever seen.

Axel laughed self-consciously. “That was a one-time thing.”

Xion fixed wide eyes on him.  “You _stole?”_

Axel looked pointedly at Saïx, like it was his fault for bringing it up.  “It was more like ‘borrowing.’ Besides, we’re paying him back with that claymore.”

Well, Saïx had to admit that a weapon, especially such a formidable-looking one, was more than repayment for some pasta, bread, and ice cream.  “You never said where you got it,” he pointed out.

“Rox has a moogle friend who synthesized it for us,” Axel replied, clapping a hand on Roxas’s shoulder.  The blond beamed proudly.

Moogles.  They used to live all over Radiant Garden, but many had disappeared since the Heartless had begun to appear and the economy plummeted.  Saïx had heard that they could make just about anything if they had the right materials.  Apparently that was true.

“I’ll consider your debt paid in full,” Saïx said.

“What, I don’t even get a thank-?”

Wispy noises cut Axel off, and his eyes widened.  “Did you hear that?”

Roxas and Xion huddled closer to their tall friend.  Saïx barely heard the noise, but the smell was overpowering.  Darkness.  The same damp, moldy smell from last night, like sewers or a graveyard after rain.

Axel started to curse, but he bit his tongue with a look at Roxas and Xion.  “I should’ve known – such an idiot, bringing two keyblade wielders –”

“There are more this time,” Saïx guessed from the smell.  He decided to ignore the comment about “keyblade wielders” – whatever that meant – but Roxas and Xion demonstrated by each summoning a giant key-like weapon.

“What…?”  Saïx couldn’t help staring at the blades that appeared out of thin air.  Roxas’s was dark black with a chain down the middle and two bat-like wings for the handguard, while  Xion’s seemed the exact opposite, bright white with a snowflake-like blade and angelic wings for its handguard.

“No time to explain,” Axel snapped.  Heartless were melting from the grass like reanimated corpses from a graveyard.  At first it was just a few Shadows.  Not a pleasant situation, but one Saïx felt he could handle, especially with his new claymore.  But then they kept coming.  And coming.  Not just Shadows now, but Darkballs, Neoshadows, Defenders, all in one agitated mob.

Xion gulped.  “We can handle this, right, Axel?”

“Yeah.  It’ll be cake.”  But his eyes were dark, and his voice was hollow.

“I’ll take the Neoshadows,” Roxas volunteered.

“I’ve got dibs on Defenders,” Axel said.

“I’ll keep Cures ready for you guys,” Xion promised.

“I’ll…”  Saïx wasn’t sure what he would do.

You take everything else,” Axel told him, and he nodded.

_I must be suicidal_.  The Heartless were beginning to clamber, crawl, and squirm towards the porch.  Axel didn’t waste time with a witty comment before leading their charge into battle.

That was a generous phrasing.  Even though they had some sort of “battle plan,” there was no sense of order in the fight.  It was a complete free-for-all, especially on the Heartless’ side; they sabotaged each other’s efforts in an attempt to claim the humans’ hearts.

Saïx had better instincts than he realized.  They saved him from the Heartless’ claws more times than he could count, if he had had any energy to spare for counting. His claymore weighed nothing more than a moonbeam as it struck down Shadows and Darkballs and whatever other unholy creatures the darkness spit up.

But that didn’t mean Saïx and the others were winning.  He’d disconnected himself from his fear and pain, allowing him to fight more efficiently, but they were still there.  He was running on adrenaline and moonlight.

Xion’s scream pierced the air.  Roxas rushed to her aid, catching her before she went all the way down.  It was only then that Saïx understood her importance; he began accumulating cuts and wounds much more quickly, and he could feel his energy draining by the second. 

Hack, slash, dodge, hack, slash – it was more a matter of self-defense than attack now.  He had to concentrate hard to keep himself from snapping and going berserk.  It helped to focus his mind on something other than the darkness assaulting him and let his body work on autopilot.  How had so many Heartless appeared here, of all places?  Saïx’s neighborhood was one of the more well-kept parts of Radiant Garden.  It had to be Axel’s fault, along with his two adopted siblings.  They were magnets for disaster.

But they were also his only hope of making it out of this alive.  Besides, they must at the very least feel some responsibility for their actions, or else they would have abandoned him and fled back to wherever they came from.

Roxas went down soundlessly.  Saïx was surprised that the boy had lasted even that long while still supporting Xion.

“ROX!  XI!”  Axel screamed, hurtling through the Heartless like he had been shot from a cannon.  Chakrams blazing – how had that happened? – he cleared a path to the porch and lay the two kids down.

_This is no life for children,_ Saïx thought.  He saw the hatred burning in Axel’s eyes as he obliterated Darkballs, Neoshadows, and Defenders alike in revenge.  _No life for anyone,_ he corrected.

But Saïx didn’t have time for pity.  He focused on dodging behind a Defender and targeting its back until it collapsed into darkness.  He went on to the next, and the next, collection souvenir scars down his arms and torso and back until he found himself beside Axel.  The redhead barely looked in better shape; the new clothes Saïx had given him were in shreds.

“Last resort,” he said grimly.  Saïx nodded, stabbing a Darkball through the face.

“The moon is waning,” he noted.  If his berserk power came from the moon like he suspected, would he still have enough strength tonight?

“So?”  Axel had a point.  It wasn’t like they had any other option.  “I’ll use my firepower, you just do your werewolf-thing.”

He would’ve objected to being called a werewolf, but considering they were probably about to die, he had other priorities.

About to die.  Why wasn’t he afraid?  Maybe because he had done more living in these past two nights than when he wasn’t in mortal danger.  Was it possible that he enjoyed the thrill of the fight?

No.  He was only doing this to protect himself and his friends… friends?

Saïx took one last look at Axel, who was gathering a giant orb of flames around his chakrams.  _Anyone I would die fighting alongside is my friend._

With a deep breath, Saïx turned his face to the moon.  Now that he wasn’t fighting the red at the edge of his vision, it consumed him in a flash.  A howl, a roar, a wave of fire.  All caution thrown to the wind.  Claymore smashing down, down, down again, a windmill of destruction. 

Red pain, red rage.  The power waxed to its height… and waned until Saïx was again kneeling in the damp grass.  His claymore stuck out of the ground a few feet away.

There were still sounds of battle.  Fire blazed in patches across the lawn.  It took Saïx several moments to realize his sleeve was on fire and even longer to think enough to put it out.  He batted it in a small patch of snow, then tried to gather enough strength to crawl towards the porch.

He fell on his face.  Axel’s fire and several Heartless still raged around him.  He couldn’t die… not with unfinished business… not without ever learning why all this was happening.

The warm glow of a Cure spell surrounded him, and Roxas and Xion came to his aid, lifting him by draping his one of his arms around each of their shoulders.

“You’re heavy,” Roxas muttered, grunting.

“Just… make it to… the porch…”

They dropped him like a sack of rocks, shooting searing pain through his bones, but at least he was safe.  Mostly.

“How has nobody noticed this?”  Saïx asked, voice faint as his heartbeat.

“Probably have.  Probably too useless to do anything,” Roxas replied brusquely before summoning his keyblade and running back into the fray to fight back-to-back with Axel.

“They should be able to handle the last few Heartless,” Xion said.  She bent over him and rested her hands, glowing green with healing magic, over his worst wounds.  The tenseness seeped out of Saïx’s exhausted muscles.

“…Thank you,” he mumbled.  Xion gave a slight smile.

“This is your house, right?”

He nodded weakly.

“Then I think that was your family trying to get out.”  Saïx’s eyes widened, and she explained, “Roxas and I had to seal your door with our keyblades to keep the Heartless out.  I think they couldn’t get in anyway, but it’s good that we kept your family inside.  It’s safer that way.”

“They can’t… see me like this…”

Xion rubbed his shoulder soothingly, like a mother would do to console her child.  It would have been an injury to his dignity, if he had had any left. “I’m sorry.  You’re doing great for only your second night, and you weren’t programmed with combat abilities.”

Saïx wasn’t conscious enough to process that last bit.  “So you… all almost died?  When you… first started?”

“I _would’ve_ died, if it wasn’t for Roxas and Axel.”  She looked out at them, smiling in relief.  “They did it.  They’re done.”

Axel and Roxas trudged back to the porch.  Little smoldering flames still flickered up with each of Axel’s steps, but the bigger fires had been magically extinguished.  The results weren’t pretty, but they were alive.

“Never fought a horde that big,” Axel rasped, coughing.  A few drops of blood sprayed the concrete.  Xion’s eyes widened.

“Axel, why haven’t you had a potion!?”  She took one from her pocket, yanked out the stopper, and forced it down the redhead’s throat before he could protest.  He coughed up some of the green liquid.

“Sheesh, Xi, you act like I was dying…”

“You know how serious internal bleeding can be!”

If he wasn’t in so much pain, Saïx might have found Xion’s concern for her older brother amusing.  She turned on Roxas, who hadn’t said a word.

“And your _arm!_ Roxas, you can’t fight like that!”  She immediately cast Cure over his bloody wrist.

“Wasn’t fighting with my right arm…”  Roxas mumbled.  He swayed and had to lean on Axel for support, and Xion had to steady them both before they toppled over.

“It appears that they would die without you,” Saïx told Xion quietly, not mentioning how he himself owed his life to her.  She may not have done as much melee fighting as the rest of them, but she had one of the most important responsibilities of all.

“Yes, they would,” she agreed.

“Yeah…”  Axel chuckled deliriously.  “We all need each other.  And we need you, too.”

“Me…?”  Saïx tried to sit up, succeeding with Xion’s help.

“You killed, like, half the Heartless,” Roxas said.

Saïx shook his head.  “I can’t live like this.  None of you should have to live like this.”

Axel crossed his arms.  “Do you think we have a choice?”

“Maybe… maybe I could give you a choice,” Saïx murmured softly.  He wasn’t sure if Axel heard; he sighed.

“Either way, _you_ do have a choice.  Roxas, unlock the door.”


	3. Chapter 3

Saïx’s mom pounced on him the second Roxas and Xion unlocked the door.

“SAÏX FENRIR KNIGHT, WHAT DID YOU THINK YOU WERE _DOING!?”_ She yelled.  Saïx flinched, but then she broke down into hysterical sobs, hugging him so tightly he couldn’t breathe.

“Mom, crushing me is not relieving any pain…”  Saïx rasped out.  Axel barely contained a snicker from his hiding place outside the doorframe.

Saïx’s mom gasped and stepped back, tears still staining her tired face.  “Is this how you got those scars yesterday?  You said it was the thief that did it!  Oh I don’t care, I just can’t believe you’re _alive!”_ She hugged him again, only a little more gently.

“Luna,” Saïx’s father put a hand on her arm to get her attention.  “He needs medical attention.”

“I’m not the only-”

Roxas swayed and collapsed into Saïx’s parents’ view, moaning and clutching his mangled wrist, which he had the misfortune to land on.

“-one.”

Mrs. Knight’s eyes widened.  “Who is-?”  Axel and Xion didn’t hesitate to lift their friend off of the ground.  “Who are-?”

“Mom, Father, this is Roxas, Axel, Xion,” Saïx said quickly, speaking as little as possible.  He was already starting to feel dizzy again.  Too much blood loss, too many things happening so quickly. “Help.  Please.”

His mom didn’t even say a word; she just sprinted towards the kitchen, where she kept her giant emergency first-aid kit.  Saïx stumbled and leaned on his father as he led them to the living room.

Awkward silence.  Saïx could only imagine his father’s unsaid objections to having three extra grimy children in his house, especially considering the damage they had done outside.  Roxas and Xion made themselves at home anyway, cuddling together and instantly falling asleep on the couch.  Saïx realized again just how young they were, how fragile, with their tattered clothes and fresh wounds.

_How can they live like this?_ Saïx had led a sheltered life – at least until recently.  But despite the pain they must’ve been in, the children seemed so peaceful, tiny smiles gracing their sleeping faces.

Axel wasn’t the same.  He seemed aged beyond his years; arms crossed, a façade of relaxation as he reclined back on the couch, even though his muscles were clearly tense.  Pain flickered on his face every few seconds; blood still leaked from under his shredded coat, especially around his stomach.

Saïx’s father studied them all carefully, his gaze revealing nothing.  “Why are you here?”

“We were killing Heartless,” Axel answered curtly.  “Y’know, since no one else around here does.”

A long pause, then another question:  “Where did you come from?”

“Nowhere.”

“Nobody comes from nowhere.”  Mr. Knight narrowed his green eyes suspiciously, but Axel was used to his secrecy, trusting no one but his adopted family.

_And me,_ Saïx realized.  How difficult had that been for him?

“Then we’re nobodies,” Axel said with finality.  Saïx’s father looked like he was about to ask more, but the redhead cut him off.  “Look, we literally just went through a near-death experience.  Can we skip the Q and A session and rest a bit?”

Saïx knew Axel’s tone wouldn’t go over well with his father, so he added, “I promise to answer-” he winced in pain, grasping a shred of his coat over one of his wounds, “-any questions when we’re healed.”

That seemed to satisfy his father for now.  Saïx’s mom rushed in then, trying to pour hydrogen peroxide on his “smaller scrapes.”  She gasped when she saw how deep they were up close, definitely too deep to clean with hydrogen peroxide.

“Oh, Saïx…”  Her somber voice was even worse than her earlier panic.  Water welled up in her green eyes.

He pushed her shaking hand away.  “Them first.”

“No, Saïx-”

“Them first,” he repeated.  “Isn’t that part of your code?  Always the children first.”

“But you’re _my_ child-”

“Mom.  Please.”

She sighed before resolutely turning to the sleeping children.   Axel’s gaze was full of gratitude as she carefully tended to Roxas and Xion’s injuries. 

“Use this.”  He took a potion from his only intact pocket and held it up.  It glowed just as much in the warm indoor lighting as it did outside, and it still looked radioactive.

“What is…?” 

“It’ll help,” he said. “Trust me.”

After softly scrubbing Roxas’s cuts with a damp washcloth, Mrs. Knight nodded and dribbled the green liquid on his wrist, which Xion hadn’t been able to heal completely before he injured it again.  Saïx guessed that it would still scar, but the skin sealed itself up cleanly.  Roxas stirred and flopped his arm over Xion’s face, but they both stayed sound asleep.

“How did you survive out there?”  Mrs. Knight asked quietly.

“Practice. Magic. Luck.”  Axel’s brief responses let Saïx know how tired he was.  Or maybe how much he distrusted adults.

“You have weapons,” Mr. Knight spoke up in his deep voice.  Saïx had almost forgotten that he was there.  “Where did you obtain them?”

“Shh,” Mrs. Knight told her husband.  “Weapons or no weapons, they’re still children.  If you’re so worried, you can go pick them up.  They left them in the yard.”

“There aren’t any Heartless left,” Saïx quietly assured his father.

“…I suppose it would be senseless to leave useful objects outside,” Mr. Knight admitted.  He exited through the front door.

“He’s just confused and worried,” his wife explained for Axel’s sake.  “Or maybe _concerned_ is the right word.  He thought the Heartless would destroy our home, if you didn’t burn it down first-” Axel winced, “-and then when we saw our baby fighting a suicide mission…”

“I’m not a baby,” Saïx grumbled, provoking a grin from Axel.  His mom moved on from Roxas and Xion to treat him, but he brushed her off again.  “Axel’s worse off.”

“What?  I’m fine-”

“Internal bleeding.”

“Yeah, but Xi fixed it,” Axel protested, but he wouldn’t meet Saïx’s eyes.

“You’re skilled at hiding pain, but not perfect.”  Saïx looked to his mom.  “He was at the heart of the battle.  He may need a trip to the hospital, an X-ray to make sure no bones are broken-”

“NO!”  Axel shouted, causing Roxas and Xion to stir again.  Xion somehow ended up pinned between Roxas and the back of the couch. “No hospitals… no X-rays or surgeries or experiments…” His face was deathly pale.  “I’ll walk straight out there and fight a hundred Heartless over again, I swear I will.”

As if his fear had roused her, Xion blinked and squirmed out from under Roxas, her blue eyes wide.  “They’re not taking us back to the castle, are they?”

“The castle?”  Saïx’s mom asked.  “Why would we take you there?”

“That’s where I came from.”  Xion huddled close to Roxas again, but she stayed wide awake.  He let out a loud snore.

“Xion.”  Axel’s voice made it clear that the subject was not to be discussed.

“My mother is a doctor,” Saïx told them.  “You can trust her.”

Axel laughed hollowly. His eyes were dull but wouldn’t stop moving, like he was scanning the room for escape routes.  Like a cornered animal. “Saï, that’s not going to convince us one bit.”

 “Then trust me because I’ve raised a decent young gentleman,” Mrs. Knight said softly, a wry smile on her face.  “I’ll only take you to the hospital as a last resort, alright?  I can take care of most things from here.”

Axel and Xion still looked scared, but he agreed to let Mrs. Knight help him.  He had no more potions, so she had to use her normal first aid kit.  “Normal” was an understatement – it was big enough for Roxas and Xion to squeeze into if they’d wanted to, and it contained nearly enough supplies to survive the apocalypse, which was Mrs. Knight’s plan.  Emergency-preparedness was her thing.  Maybe that was where Saïx got his paranoia from.  Though at the moment Axel seemed even more paranoid than him… what had happened to make him so distrustful of doctors?

“Where could I find more of those ‘potions’?”  His mom asked, cutting away the shreds of clothing over Axel’s stomach.

“…Heartless drop them sometimes.” He flinched away from her scissors and instinctively tried to push her away, still with those lifeless animal eyes.  It made Saïx afraid just to see him like this.

“Sorry, dear… be careful, you’ll only make it worse if you move too much… we’re going to need to rinse these wounds-”

Mr. Knight cut her off by walking awkwardly through the front door, two chakrams hanging from his arm and Saïx’s claymore in his other hand.  Roxas and Xion’s keyblades must have vanished as easily as they had appeared.

“Thank you,” Saïx said to his father.

“…I suppose you are welcome.  We will have to discuss this later.”  He clearly wasn’t pleased with the destruction outside.  _But we stopped the Heartless.  A charred lawn is a small price to pay._

“Isa, stop acting like he’s in trouble,” Mrs. Knight chided.  “He saved us from the Heartless.”

“Hey, don’t give him allthe credit.” A strange expression flickered across Axel’s face, but then he grinned.  “And uh, could we get to the part where you make me feel like I didn’t almost die?”

At least he was well enough to have his sense of humor back.  Mrs. Knight put on her Business Face again.  “You’ll need to wash your injuries in the shower; they’re too deep to bandage without cleaning.”

“I’d be fine with that but, uh, I can’t get up.”

She sighed and rolled her eyes, but Saïx knew she wasn’t as exasperated as she pretended to be.  “I don’t expect you to by yourself, dear.”  She put one arm behind his back and other under his knees to lift him up.  Her eyes widened.  “How much do you weigh?”

“Uh…”  Axel’s face turned almost as red as his hair.

“Not enough,” Saïx said.

“You, sir, are going to eat as soon as you get out of the shower,” Mrs. Knight ordered in her ‘I-am-your-mother’ voice, which almost made Saïx smile.  But he was still in pain, however much he insisted for the others to be taken care of first.

“I’ll come too,” Xion volunteered after yawning and squirming out from behind Roxas, who was still out cold.  Mrs. Knight stared at her inquisitively.

“She’s a healer,” Axel explained, letting his sister hold his hand.  “I trust her more than any medical-science junk.  No offense.”

Luna raised an eyebrow, half-smiling.  “I’m sure you have your reasons.”

His mom took Axel and Xion to the bathroom, leaving Saïx alone with his father.  And the sleeping Roxas, but Saïx didn’t count him.

Mr. Knight cleared his throat. “Your mom was terrified,” he said quietly, almost in a whisper.  Saïx nodded.

“I know.”

His father carefully sat down beside him, laying the chakrams down on the ground.  “I was… rather anxious as well.”

Saïx smiled, just a little.  Dizziness was blurring his vision again, but he could see how pale his father looked, the rare emotions engraved in his expression.  “I can assure you I was a bit more anxious than you.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure of that,” Mr. Knight replied, blue hair now obscuring his face.

“Father.”  Saïx made his voice as firm as he could, though it still shook with his pain.  “I’m sorry I worried you and Mom.  But I couldn’t leave Axel and his family out there with the Heartless.”

“Do you know where they came from?”

“No.  All I know is that he was trying to break into our trash yesterday, so I gave him some food.  That was after we fought off some Heartless.  There were not nearly as many that time.”  It wasn’t a very good explanation, but it covered the most important parts.  And he’d rather not explain that Axel had stolen some of the food.

“You did this twice.”  Resignation in his voice.

“Yes.”

“That was how you got those scars.”

“Yes.”

A deep sigh.  “Do you plan on doing this again?”

Saïx was caught by surprise.  Was his father giving him a choice?  He didn’t want to put himself in danger again… but Axel was right, they were the only ones who would fight the Heartless… did that make him responsible?  If he had the ability, wasn’t it his job to do as much as he could?

Even if it wasn’t required of him, Saïx would do as much as he could to keep Axel and his family safe.  They were even now, he assumed, but he still felt indebted to them somehow.  Maybe… maybe just for accepting him.

“I’m… not sure,” Saïx answered honestly.

“It’s something Lea would’ve done,” Isa whispered, so quietly that Saïx wasn’t sure if he was meant to hear.  “You might need this, then.”

He handed Saïx his claymore.  “I can keep…?”

“Yes.  As long as it’s not stolen.” A rare almost-smile.

“It isn’t,” Saïx assured him, running his fingertips over the flat side of the blue-tinted blade.  “Thank you.”

His father gave an even rarer full-smile.  “You were brave.  Braver than I am.”

Saïx wasn’t sure how to reply to that, so they sat in silence until Luna, Axel, and Xion returned.  His mom wasted no time in tending to his wounds, which weren’t as deep as Axel’s but still needed to be cleaned with a damp washcloth.

“Your mom’s pretty good, for a doctor,” Axel admitted with a grin, happy to be able to stretch without pain shooting through his skin, which was covered by a new set of Saïx’s old clothes.  Xion kicked him lightly in the ankle.

“She did more than I could have.”

“Yeah, but you’re only two, I hardly think it’s a fair comparison.  Give yourself a few years and you’ll be bringing people back from the dead.”

_Two?_ Saïx was too exhausted to care much, and the stinging of his mom washing out his cuts was distracting.  While she worked, Mr. Knight returned Axel’s chakrams.

“I do not entirely approve of a child carrying around weapons, but you seem competent with them.”

“Uh… thanks,” he replied uncertainly, relaxing once his chakrams were in his hands.

_Does that make me not a child, then?_ Saïx wondered.  It meant a lot for his father to trust him with his claymore; he could’ve kept it and Saïx wouldn’t have been able to do anything.  He wouldn’t take that for granted.

Mrs. Knight finished patching up the various cuts in Saïx’s flesh, murmuring soothing words that he suspected were more for her benefit than his.

“Saïx,” she whispered, “this isn’t going to happen again, is it?”

His father answered for him, “If it does, I trust he will be better prepared.”

Everyone stared at him, but he said nothing more.  Luna frowned uncertainly.  “But...”

“It’s better for him to be prepared now.  If we prevent him from learning to fight, he could be in greater danger later.”

Saïx was surprised by the role reversal – usually it was his mom who argued about being prepared and his father who was stricter – but he wasn’t going to complain.

There was still one thing bothering him, though, so he asked, “Axel, why did so many Heartless attack?  We’ve never seen more than a few on our street before.”

Axel shook his head.  “They’re attracted to strong hearts, so Roxas, Xion, and I are always in trouble.  Fighting those Heartless last night must’ve strengthened your heart, too.”

He wondered if that was a good thing or not.  It sounded positive to have a strong heart, but if it attracted Heartless… well, he couldn’t do anything about it now. “And why don’t they appear indoors?”

“That I don’t know.”  He frowned.

“I’ve thought about it,” Xion spoke up.  “I don’t think they can get through locked doors.”

“Doors?”  Axel raised an eyebrow.  “Even ones with normal locks?”

Xion nodded.  “I can’t prove it, but I’ve seen some try and fail before.”

“Huh.”  He shrugged.

“Well I _hope_ they can’t get inside,” Mrs. Knight said, sounding like she would strangle any Heartless who dared.  “They won’t be hurting my son again.”

“Mom…”  He was too tired to argue now… but if Axel needed him again, if there was someone he needed to protect, Saïx wouldn’t let his new friends down.

“And they won’t be hurting any of these poor children, either,” she continued.

“Huh?”  Xion perked up from where she was sitting by Axel.

“You can’t protect us,” the redhead said, his voice resigned.  He stood up, taking Xion by the hand.  “I mean, thanks and all, but you’ve done everything you can already.”

“Do we have to go?”  Xion whispered through a disappointed pout.

“Yeah, Xi.  Wake up Roxas.”

Sulkily Xion shook her brother’s shoulder, and he woke with a startled snort.  “We’re leaving.”

“But I’m tired…”  He tried to curl back up.  Saïx got the mental image of a grouchy kitten.

“No, you don’t have to leave,” Mrs. Knight said quickly, holding out her hands.  “You can’t go back out there.”

“We’re _always_ out there.”  Axel shook Roxas himself.  “C’mon, we gotta go.”

Saïx had been fading in and out of consciousness, but he reached out vaguely when he heard Axel.  “Wait.”

Axel paused.

“I won’t let you go back out there.”

“What are you gonna do, then, sit on me?”  He clutched Roxas and Xion’s hands tightly.  How did he heal so quickly?  Mrs. Knight and Xion had treated them both, but he seemed to be at full health while Saïx was still barely functioning.

“You don’t want to leave.  You’re just scared,” Saïx said, interpreting the look in his eyes.

“These people are nice.” Xion looked up at her older brother.  “And I don’t want to leave Saïx.  He’s nice too.”

Saïx felt oddly warmed by that.

“I got to sleep on soft stuff,” Roxas added, and Axel couldn’t help chuckling.

“Please stay,” Mrs. Knight begged, clasping her hands together.  “I’d feel awful if I left you children out in the cold, with all those monsters.”

“Luna,” Mr. Knight objected quietly.  “There are likely some child services looking for them.  You can’t take in children like they’re stray cats.”

Axel held Roxas and Xion closer.  “I told you earlier, we’re nobodies.  We don’t belong anywhere.”  Saïx wasn’t sure if that was an argument for or against staying; he doubted Axel knew either.

“You could belong here,” he said distantly.  He’d never had friends, much less siblings… and besides, he felt responsible for them now.

“…Do you honestly have nowhere to go?”  Isa asked.

“Well…”  Xion began, “we’ve got the secret spot behind the fountains, and it’s nice, I mean, it’s better than any of our old hideouts, but it’s cold…”

Axel facepalmed.  “The point of a secret hideout is that it’s _secret,_ Xi.”

“But you don’t care if Saïx knows, right?”

“That’s not the point.”

Mrs. Knight looked pleadingly at her husband.

“Are you intending for them to live here?”  He asked with a sigh.

Mrs. Knights eye lit like triumphant fireworks as she hugged her husband.  “That’s a _wonderful_ idea, honey!”

“I didn’t mean it as a suggestion—!”

“We always wanted more children!  We could be like one of those big happy families that do everything together and go on vacations and play board games, and it would be so good for Saïx since he’s never gotten along with anyone so well—”

“Wait, you actually want to adopt _us_?”  Axel’s jaw dropped.

“You’d be my mommy!?”  Xion squealed ecstatically.  “I always wanted a mommy, but replicas don’t have mommies, I just had Vexen and Zexion and the Riku Replicas—” She blushed deep pink when she realized everyone was staring.

“If we stay here, will we get more food?”  Roxas asked obliviously.

Mrs. Knight answered yes to all three of their questions.  Axel still looked like his brain was broken.

“You… really… want us?”

“Is the idea that shocking?”  Saïx asked.

“It’s just… you’d be the first,” Axel finished in a near-whisper.

Mr. Knight’s expression softened a degree, and his wife used the opportunity to gather Axel, Roxas, and Xion in a suffocating hug.  Saïx knew they were here to stay when his mom pulled her famous Puppy Eyes.

“That’s very mature of you, Luna…”  Her husband muttered, trying not to meet her gaze.

“Isa, they _need_ us.”

Roxas and Xion made huge Puppy Eyes of their own, though Saïx couldn’t tell whether or not it was on purpose.  Even Axel tried to look as cute as a beat-up teenage street rat holding two spiky death wheels could.

Isa sighed.  “If Saïx cares about you, you must be truly special.  I make no objection.”

Mrs. Knight joined Xion’s gleeful squeal and ran over to place a kiss on her husband’s cheek.

“I have a daughter!”  She cheered, pouncing on Xion.

“I have a mommy!”  Xion reveled in her hug.

Roxas yawned.  “So I can go back to sleep?”

Mrs. Knight d’awwed and absorbed him into their hug too.  Mr. Knight stood by awkwardly, and Axel looked up at him.

“You’re not gonna make me join the hug-fest, are you?”

Isa smiled.  “You remind me of an old friend of mine.”

“Lea,” Saïx guessed, having seen pictures of his father and his father’s friend before. “Lea Hearth.”  The resemblance was uncanny, now that he thought about it.  And wait, hadn’t Axel introduced himself as…?

Axel’s jaw dropped, again.  “Wait – no way – he was my dad!”

Saïx and Isa shared a look of disbelief.

“I didn’t know you had a dad,” Roxas said dubiously.

“It was before I knew you,” Axel said.

“I never knew he had a son.  Or a wife, for that matter,” Mr. Knight mused, eyes cloudy.  “We had a falling out when I went to college… Lea had moved to Twilight Town by the time I came home…”

“We moved back after… after my mom died,” Axel whispered, looking at the ground.  Roxas and Xion left Mrs. Knight’s hug to press close to their brother.  “But we didn’t know about the Heartless… they killed Dad pretty soon after we got here.”

Saïx was shocked when he saw water springing to his father’s eyes.

“I thought… hoped… it was only because he still held a grudge against me that I hadn’t heard from him…”

“He tried to find you first thing when we got here, but you’d moved.” Axel’s own voice quavered a little.  “I thought earlier when I heard your name that maybe… but I didn’t want to get my hopes up.”

Mrs. Knight placed a gentle hand on her husband’s arm.  “Isa, I’m so sorry…”

Mr. Knight pulled Axel into a sudden hug.  “If I knew… you would have had a home here from the beginning.”

Axel’s eyes darted back and forth, chakram-holding arms sticking out like tree branches.  “I thought you said we could skip the whole hugging thing?”

Isa chuckled and almost let his adopted son go, but Roxas and Xion happily pounced and trapped them again.

“You are just too _cute,”_ Mrs. Knight squeed and joined the group hug.  Xion smiled hugely; Roxas scooted farther away from one of Axel’s chakrams.

“Hey, Saï,” Axel called, relaxing with a grin, “you’re not gonna leave us hanging, are ya?”

Saïx felt the beginning of a smile on his face.  “That would be rude, wouldn’t it.”  Pushing through the last remnants of pain, he stood up from the couch and joined his patchwork family.

He had never felt so loved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Luna is an OC I made up for the purposes of this fic.
> 
> I didn’t want Lea to be dead, but that was how it ended up playing out. :/
> 
> I think I made Saïx nicer than he’s supposed to be. Don’t worry, he’ll be adorably grumpy when he’s not recovering from a near-death experience. ^^;


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Xion is technically two; Roxas is about nine. Xion also appears about nine. That’ll be kind-of explained in this chapter.

When they finally got around to bringing out the food, Axel, Roxas, and Xion dove in like a starving wolf pack.  Mrs. Knight seemed to find this endearing, but Mr. Knight was already making corrections to their manners.

“Keep your elbows off the table.”

“Chew with your mouth closed.”

“Roxas, that is a napkin, not a cape.”

Mrs. Knight laughed and shook her head.  “Isa, what do you expect?  They’ve been living on the streets.”

“Even if Axel hadn’t, I doubt Lea would’ve taught him table manners…”  Isa murmured with a touch of nostalgia.

Saïx sat at the dining room table with them, but his eyes were glazed over.  None of this felt quite real.  He would wake up, and his new family members would be gone, and everything would be back to normal.  His brain was far too dead to begin accepting that this _was_ his new normal.

“Yo, pass the jelly,” Axel called from across the table.  Mr. Knight sighed. 

“It would be more polite to say ‘please…’ ”

“Fine, _please_ pass the jelly.”

Saïx passed the jelly.

“Thanks, man.”  Axel spread it on his bread and went back to scarfing down everything in sight.

“Are you alright, sweetie?”  Saïx’s mom asked, noticing his zombie-like state.

“Yes, mom.  Just tired.”

“Are you hungry at all?”

“Not particularly.”

“Thirsty?”

“No.”

“You’ve got all this food, and you’re not even hungry?”  Axel stared at him incredulously, half-open mouth revealing a rather unpleasant view of semi-chewed food.  Roxas reached over and slid Saïx’s plate towards himself.

“At least eat a slice of bread,” his mom said.  Saïx sighed and did as he was told, taking halfhearted bites.

“I believe he has more on his mind than hunger,” Mr. Knight said.  “Come, we have done all we can for them tonight.”

“But…” His wife protested.

“They will never rest if you keep hovering.”  Isa smiled.

After they finally left, Saïx rested his head on the table.  “I never knew things could change this quickly…”

Axel shrugged.  “You get used to it after a while.  At least this is a good change.”

“So you’ll stay for real this time?  No running off while pretending to use my shower?”  Saïx meant it more lightly than it came out in him monotone.  Axel ruffled his already-disheveled hair.

“I’m sorry, really…”

“I understand,” Saïx interrupted.  “Your family needed you.”

_“Our_ family now.”  Axel smiled.

Saïx looked around:  Roxas, stuffing his face with jelly-slathered bread; Xion, straightening her napkin in her lap the way his father taught her; Axel still smiling peacefully.  Finally Saïx remembered the question he had never found the right time to ask.

“But your family used to be larger, didn’t it?”

Axel paled.  Xion looked up sadly and said, “Axel had sisters before me.”

He was clearly reluctant to talk about it; his mouth formed a flat line.  “Yeah… Kai… Kairi.  And Naminé.”  Axel swallowed, though Saïx hadn’t seen him take a bite.  “I couldn’t –  I couldn’t save Naminé from the Heartless.  She was so, so little, and I wasn’t – wasn’t strong enough…  couldn’t save Kairi either.  She ended up saving me, I still don’t know how, she was so little too, but there was light everywhere and then the Heartless were gone… and so was Naminé…”  He shoved a whole slice of bread into his mouth to keep himself from talking.  Xion climbed into his lap, and he gave a muffled chuckle before swallowing.  “You’re getting too big for this, Xi.”

“No I’m not,” she pouted.  Roxas tried to clamber on top of Axel too, but there wasn’t nearly enough room.

“Hey, why don’t you sit on your other brother?”  Axel grinned.  Roxas flung himself into Saïx’s lap, and he hissed in pain, nearly shoving him off.

“I am injured there _get off,”_ he snarled.  Roxas huffed and stood behind Axel.

“You’re no fun.”

“Being in pain is no fun.”

“Axel, are you going to finish the story?”  Xion interrupted to stop them from arguing. The redhead sighed.

“I guess Saïx deserves to know after putting up with all of us.”  He smiled sadly, putting his arms around her.  “Kairi and I escaped, but we were too tired to get very far.  Some guards from the castle picked us up and… and gave us to the scientists for test subjects...”

“I was test subject XIII,” Roxas said while Axel composed himself.  “Axel was number VIII, ‘cause they picked him up before me.  I didn’t know him yet.”

“They were using us… orphans,” Axel’s voice quieted at the word, “to create some kind of ‘superhero’ to protect the city.  That’s how I got my fine powers and these.”  He touched his teardrop markings.  “But not everyone was that lucky.  TS _IX_ , Demyx, had his internal organs liquefied.”

Saïx’s stomach lurched.  He gripped the wooden armrests of his chair.  _They perform experiments like that in the_ castle?  _Our own government?_

“You didn’t have to tell him that,” Xion said, looking at him sympathetically.

“Yeah, I did,” Axel firmly replied.  “He doesn’t know what it’s like, and he has to if he wants to know us.”

Saïx swallowed his disgust.  “You’re right.  I do need to know.”

Axel nodded.  “Roxas already told you I was TS _VIII._ Kairi was TS _VII._ She was their ‘favorite’ because of her light-powers, the same ones that saved us from the Heartless.  So she got the worst tests.”  He clenched his fists.  “I couldn’t save her any more than I could save Naminé.  They took her light, dissected her _heart,_ and… well…”  He glanced apologetically at Xion.

“They used her to make me,” she whispered.

Saïx stared.  “You mean you really _are_ a replica?”

“Yeah.”  She blushed.

“But it’s not her fault,” Axel said, daring Saïx to say any more on the subject.  “The scientists duplicated Roxas’s keyblade powers for her, too.  She was supposed to be their weapon against the Heartless.  I broke us and Roxas out, and some of the Replikus…”

Saïx didn’t ask what a “Repliku” was, but he did ask, “Why did they make an eight-year-old girl for a superhero?”

“I was supposed to be older,” Xion answered, “but Axel broke me out before they finished growing me.”

That… gave him strange mental images he would rather not have pictured.  _How can one grow a human being?_ He decided he didn’t want to know.

“Anyway, I got all of us out,” Axel continued, “but… but not Kairi.  I was too late.”

He went abruptly silent.  It took Saïx a moment to realize that tears were slowly leaking out of the redhead’s closed eyes.  Xion hugged him tightly.

“I’m such an idiot,” Axel muttered, shaking his head.

“No, you’re not,” Saïx replied firmly.  “It is perfectly acceptable to mourn your family.”  Not that he had any personal experience, but considering the emotional pain from seeing his friends – now family – hurt…

“But mourning won’t bring them back.”  Axel shook his head, and there was a thick silence.

Roxas picked at Saïx’s food, frowning.  “You still love us, right?”

Axel looked like he’d been shot.  “What?”

“We’re not just replacements,” he said uncertainly.  “Are we?”  Xion’s wide eyes asked the same question.

“Rox… Xi…”  Their brother’s voice choked up.  “You’ve _never_ been Kairi and Naminé’s replacements.  I’ll _always_ love you guys.”

Saïx, as usual, was uncomfortable with such displays of emotion.  He had only just met them; how could they have room for him when their current bonds were so tight?

Axel seemed to realize his discomfort.  “You’re not replacing anyone either, y’know.”

He still wasn’t sure what to do, or if any action was required.  For some reason he wanted the strange trio to accept him, and they had.  At least, Axel had, and Xion didn’t seem to mind, and Roxas was comfortable enough to steal his food.

“Saï?  You fall asleep in there?”  Axel tapped Saïx’s forehead like a child poking a fish tank.  He was too slow to swat the personal-space-invading hand away.

“No, but I’d like to.”  He stifled a yawn.  “I have school tomorrow.”  It was a foreign thought after the night’s events, but life would still go on.  His parents would go to work, too.  What would Axel, Roxas, and Xion do?

“What’s school?”  Roxas asked.  What kind of education did he and Xion have?  Probably no more than was needed to scavenge food and fight Heartless.

“It’s a place where you go to obtain an education,” Saïx said.  Upon seeing their blank stares, he said in simpler terms, “A place where you learn things.”

“That sounds fun,” Xion said, eyes sparkling.

“Sounds boring.”  Roxas crossed his arms.  “Can’t we keep fighting Heartless?”

“Why not?”  Axel answered at the same time Saïx said, “There’s no need.”

The two teenagers locked eyes.

“Not around here, at least,” Saïx said.  “The Heartless never came so close before you came.  You’ll put us all in danger if you keep gallivanting in the middle of the night.”

“You were out there too!”  Axel countered.  “You can’t call that ‘gallivanting.’  Besides, we can’t stop.  We’re the only ones that can kill them.”

Saïx didn’t understand why they were so eager to put their lives at risk, but then he remembered Naminé.  “It’s a matter of revenge, isn’t it.”

Axel’s eyes burned like green fire.  “Yeah, but that’s not all of it.  You don’t want those monsters taking over the Gardens, do you?  We’re the _only ones,_ Saïx, the _only ones_ that care enough and aren’t too scared to fight.”

Xion and Roxas kept looking back and forth between them.  “…We don’t have to fight all the time,” she said.  “Just sometimes.  We can go to school, too.”

Saïx hated to admit that the younger girl’s idea was the most sensible, but he agreed.  _We do have a responsibility._ The same thought had crossed his mind earlier, when he had talked with his father.  He hadn’t been so sure what his choice would be then, whether to continue to fight or not, but he couldn’t ignore the evidence.  This was his home; he couldn’t just sill back and watch if he had the means to protect it.  Real people were in danger.  Real people had died.

“Then I’d better make sure you don’t get yourselves killed.”

A smile crept up Axel’s face when he realized what Saïx was implying.  “Oi, we’re not _that_ reckless.”

Xion giggled.  “You and Roxas kinda are.”

“Hey!”  Roxas protested.  “I’m not… okay, yeah I am,” he admitted sheepishly.  Axel laughed, and even Saïx smiled.

He had never thought he’d enjoy having siblings, but maybe… now that he was beginning to see and feel the benefits…

Well, maybe fighting Heartless wouldn’t be so bad, as long as he was fighting alongside them.


	5. Flashback - Xion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a “flashback” scene in between plot arcs. This is Xion’s POV, and the narration doesn’t entirely make sense.

The first thing I remember is the Tank.  There was no before; _I_ wasn’t before.  I wasn’t alive, but not dead, either, just nowhere at all.  I don’t know how they got me in the Tank.  Roxas and Axel say I was created from Kairi’s light and Roxas’s… keyblade-wielder-ness, but I don’t know _how_ I was created.

I started remembering things, becoming conscious, when I was seven days old.  The fluid in the Tank was an ugly red-orange, like rotten tomatoes.  I could blink, clench my fists, kick my legs, but the fluid absorbed any senses of touch and sound.

I could see the scientists talking – later on Roxas and Axel told me their names were Vexen, Zexion, and Xehanort, but at the time I called them Creepysmile, Hairface, and Goldeyes in my head.  Curiosity made me want to know what they were saying, but they scared me, too.  Especially Creepysmile and Goldeyes.  Hairface was nicer; sometimes he would place his hand on the Tank and stare at me with his one eye that wasn’t shrouded by pretty hair.  I tried to touch my hand to the spot on the inside of the Tank, but wires kept me in place and my arms weren’t long enough, even when I was one month old.

I grew fast while I was in the Tank.  I don’t know how big I was supposed to get, but I’m glad I never found out.

It was a normal day:  Creepysmile turned on the Tank filter, which always made the fluid easier to breathe.  Hairface smiled at me when Creepysmile wasn’t looking.  Goldeyes only stepped in for a moment, saying something to the other two before stalking off with his white lab coat swishing around his ankles.

Time was strange in the Tank.  I could sleep for what felt like hours, but I would wake up and nothing would look changed.  There were no meals and no hunger – the wires and fluid fed me; before Roxas and Axel came I didn’t even know how to eat.  Besides when Creepysmile turned on the filter, there was only one exact way to gauge the time:  the boys in the tanks opposite mine had a pattern they followed every day.  There were three of them, labeled Riku Replica-1, Riku Replica-2, and Riku Replica-3 with shiny plaques under their Tanks.  I wished I could see mine.  Did I have a name?

The routine started with R-1 waking up and staring at me, just staring, not blinking.  Then R-2 would wake up just after Creepyface turned on the filters, and he’d smile brightly and wave at me.  R-3 woke up last; he just sulked and crossed his arms.  Then R-1 would swim around in circles until he tangled himself in his wires, and Hairface would have to operate a set of mechanical hands to detangle him.  R-2 watched and silently cackled.  At the end of the day he would dance until I fell asleep.

Every day I watched.  That day was no different.  R-2 was happily dancing when two black-coated boys burst into the lab with some spiked weapons and shattered my Tank.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is so short, but I want to space out pieces of this backstory throughout the main story.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey look, this story's actually not dead. I've actually had this chapter written for a while, but I wanted to wait until I was almost done with this plot arc/group of chapters to type and post it. I'm still really interested in this story and universe, I just have a few other higher-priority fanfics, so this probably still won't be updated too regularly.

It took a little over a week to register Axel, Roxas, and Xion in the Radiant Garden School District, thanks to Isa’s position on the school board.  It took several long weeks for Saïx’s body to become accustomed to their late-night Heartless-destroying runs on top of his normal homework.  But what took the longest, what still felt strange for him after over two months of living with his now-officially-adopted siblings, was the _noise._

Crunching, chewing, smacking, at every meal.  Isa was determined to correct the ex-street rats’ table manners, but his progress was slower than molasses so far.  Then there was squealing, whenever Roxas and Xion chased each other around the house.  Breaking noises from several accidents that occurred during such childish activities usually followed soon after.

But, Saïx admitted, it was something of a miracle that they had any childishness left in them after all they’d been through.  He gave much of the credit for that to Axel.

Not all of the noise was unwelcome, however.  Between his mother’s cries when they came home late from a run, one of the kids’ gasping nightmares, and shrieks of terror when they were ambushed by Heartless in the dead of night, there were respites of peace.  An off-tune lullaby as Axel sang Roxas and Xion to sleep; a steadier harmony when Saïx finally assisted him.  Laughter, previously unfamiliar in the Knight home’s walls, now constantly echoed back and forth between the four siblings.

It wasn’t perfect, as no family was.  But for all the sacrifices, Saïx’s upside-down life was finally settling back into a regular pattern.

XXX

“-aixAxelSaixAxel!”  Xion repeated their names without stopping for a breath, flying out the front door when the two teenage boys were in sight of the house.

“Whoa, who gave you coffee?!”  Axel held out his arms, bracing for impact.  Xion hit with the force of a small torpedo.

Roxas followed behind, kicking at the stubborn patches of as that remained in between the new growth of spring grass.  “School is stupid,” he muttered just loud enough for Saïx to hear.

“You will learn to appreciate your education in the future,” Saïx replied automatically, which only made Roxas roll his eyes.

“We get a surprise visitor tomorrow!”  Xion told Axel.

“I bet it’s just some boring old guy,” Roxas huffed.

“You don’t know that!  She could be a girl.”

“Fine, a boring old _girl.”_

“Hey!”

“Don’t dampen your sister’s enthusiasm,” Saïx said, walking towards the front door.  His muscles had been strengthened by nights of Heartless raids, but days of schools still exhausted him, sometimes even more than fighting.  He was always an overachiever, but high school was so much _work…_ And on top of that, he was also tutoring his new siblings, especially Axel… though he would never admit it, it got to the point where he looked forward to their raids as an escape.

Axel, Roxas, and Xion followed him towards the door, still speculating on the mystery speaker.  Well, Axel and Xion were.  Roxas was kicking up more ash.

“Did something happen at school today?”  Saïx asked the young blond.

“No.  I’m _fine.”_ Roxas stomped forcefully at the porch.

“Very well.”

“…It’s Seifer’s gang…” he began as Saïx predicted he would, and the rest spilled out.  “They’re so _mean_ and they make fun of me ‘cause I can’t read good like everyone else and I’m trying but I’m still not good, and they take all my lunch even Mom’s bread and I can’t hit them with my keyblade or Axel’d be mad at me.”  He sat on the bottom step of the porch, arms crossed over his knees with his chin resting on top of them.

“You have no need to worry about your reading.  You are progressing as fast as can be expected given your circumstances, and I am always here to help you.”  Even if that put even more stress on him… at least Xion had apparently been ‘programmed’ with the ability to read, so there was only one sibling to teach.  “Have you told Axel?”  he added.  If anything, the impulsive redhead was more likely to beat this ‘Seifer’s gang’ for his brother, regardless of consequences.

“…I have to be stronger,” he mumbled.  “If I can fight Heartless, I should be able to deal with those losers… If I could just use my keyblade—”

“No.”  Saïx rested his hands on his adopted brother’s shoulders, forcing him to make eye contact.  “They are not worth the consequences that would arise from fighting.  Axel and I will take care of it.”  He figured they could intimidate a few fourth-graders without much effort.

“No!”  Roxas objected loudly.  “I mean… can just you take care of it?  I don’t want to tell Axel…”

“Roxas. He is your brother; you know you can trust him.  He won’t think any less of you.”

“But—”

“I won’t help you without Axel.  Or would you rather go more days without lunch?”

Roxas sighed heavily.  “...fine…”

XXX

“Axel, this is _not_ a good time—”

“It’s the _perfect_ time!”

“We can’t interrupt an assembly—!”

“We won’t interrupt anything, nobody’ll even know we’re there.  Except Seifer’s gang.”

“Every teacher in the school will be watching.”

“Every teacher in the school will be watching _the assembly.”_

“You have never even been to an assembly.  Teachers focus all their attention on keeping their students under control to keep them from looking bad in front of the guest speaker.  Besides, the assembly will be during the middle of our school day.”

“During the middle of our lunch, you mean.  Xion told me what time it’s supposed to be.”

“We can’t sneak out of school, even during lunch.”

“Fine, _you_ don’t have to.  But I’m not letting those imps mug my bro again.”

This was why it was impossible to argue with Axel.  He would threaten to do something ridiculous that Saïx knew fully well he would go through with, leaving Saïx with the only option of following him along for damage control.  Surprising how quickly he had learned this in the few months of having Axel as a brother.

It was also surprising how easy it was to sneak into the elementary school assembly.  It was like they were asking for two teenagers to intimidate some “helpless” little kids.  Saïx and Axel had discovered that this assembly was such a big deal that they were bussing the elementary kids over to the high school auditorium, which was directly next to the cafeteria.

“This is your last chance to make a sensible decision,” Saïx told Axel.

“You’re right.  And I’m making it.”  Axel pushed open the door to the auditorium, and Saïx sighed.

The door was at the back of the room, so at least nobody was facing them, but there was still a problem Axel had obviously not considered:  how were they supposed to find one group of fourth graders in a huge auditorium filled with elementary school students?

“I don’t suppose you planned this far ahead,” Saïx muttered.

“Of course I did,” Axel replied proudly.  “Rox said Seifer’s tall and wear a weird black hat.”

“Because that’s incredibly descriptive.”  Saïx rolled his eyes, scanning the audience.  He doubted the children were even allowed to wear hats inside the school; the high school students weren’t.

It took Saïx a while to notice Axel’s uncharacteristic silence.  In fact, it wasn’t until he was about to suggest the search was useless that he registered the panic and terror on his adopted brother’s face.

“Seifer isn’t terrorizing Roxas right now, is he?”  Saïx directed his gaze back to the students, but nothing seemed amiss.

“We need to get Rox and Xi out of here,” Axel whispered.  _“Now.”_

When flames flickered around Axel’s palms, Saïx knew he was serious.  But it didn’t make sense; it was just an ordinary school assembly, wasn’t it…?

Axel was already dashing down one of the side aisles, searching frantically for his siblings’ faces until a teacher stopped him.

“What are you doing here, young man?”  She asked in an unfriendly tone.  By then Saïx had caught up to play damage control.

“Excuse my brother, ma’am,” he began, one hand squeezing Axel’s arm so he wouldn’t run off, “but we were sent to pick up Roxas and Xion.  Our brother and sister.  Could you direct us to where they are seated?”

The teacher’s eyes narrowed.  “I believe those two children were just taken to the restroom.  Having a sudden sickness, it seemed.  A bit too sudden to be coincidence, if you ask me…”

“They are sick,” Saïx improvised quickly.  “That is why we’ve been sent to pick them up.”

“You said they’re in the bathroom?”  Axel demanded.

“I believe Mrs. Flora took them there.  They didn’t look like they could make it to the nurse in time.” she replied snippily.  “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I would like to listen to our leader’s most interesting lecture.”

Leader…?

“Come on man, let’s go.”  Axel practically dragged him out the door.  Saïx barely caught a glance of the young gold-eyed man in a white lab coat pacing around the stage at the head of the auditorium.

_“If we expect any progress to be made against this threat…”_

“Wait,” Saïx pulled himself free once they were outside the auditorium’s walls, “was that _Lord Xehanort_ speaking to a school of elementary school students?”  Yes, Saïx had been distracted, but surely he should have noticed that much…  “Shouldn’t he have more productive matters to attend to?”

“Like torturing other kids?”  Axel spat, dashing through the halls.

“What are you—” Saïx stopped abruptly.  _“_ Xehanort _himself_ was responsible for the experiments?”

“Not alone, but yeah.  And we don’t have time.”  Axel dragged him along again until his legs began to function on their own.

They soon reached the bathroom, where Xion was clutching the arm of a pink-dressed, grey-haired lady.

“Xi!”  Axel ran up and practically glomped his sister, who looked relieved to see him.

“Axel!  Axel, you’re okay!”

He laughed.  “’Course I am.  Where’s Rox?”

“He has yet to come out of the restroom,” Mrs. Flora informed him.  “The poor dear was rather pale…”

“Here.”  Axel thrust Xion into Saïx’s arms before running into the men’s restroom.

“I’m glad you’re okay too, Saïx.”  Xion smiled.

“And what reason do I have not to be?”

“You have the goldeyes,” Xion replied like she had never noticed before.  Saϊx nudged her hand away when she reached up to touch his face.

“…Is that a problem?”

She shrugged, only leaving Saïx more confused than before.  A rather irritating headache had begun to form in the front of his skull.

“You are their brother, aren’t you?”  Mrs. Flora asked.  “Are you here to take them home?”

“Yes.  Thank you for taking care of them,” Saïx used up his remaining politeness, though he truly was thankful.  If Roxas and Xion had made a scene in the auditorium, like Axel nearly had…

Speaking of Axel, he emerged from the bathroom with a pale-looking blond glued to his arm.

“I hope you feel better, dears.”  Mrs. Flora smiled.

“Bye,” Xion said with a tiny wave.  Roxas only sniffed.

“Let’s go home,” Axel said after she had left.

“We still have classes,” Saïx reminded him.

“Forget classes, we’ve gotta get out of here.”

“Do we get to use keyblades now?”  Roxas asked, perking up a little.

Axel’s eyes narrowed as he started off down the hall.  “Maybe.  But not yet.”

“We can’t just run off in the middle of—”

“Don’t tell me when I can’t run,” Axel snapped, taking Xion’s hand in his.

“Please don’t fight…” she whispered.  Saïx’s golden eyes softened a little at the sight of her and Roxas’s fear.  Even when they were fighting hordes of Heartless, they were always so brave, not doubting at all that they would win.  Which meant that, at least to them, Lord Xehanort was more dangerous than a horde of Heartless…

“Safety is our highest priority,” Saïx admitted, leading the way down the hall.  Axel, Roxas, and Xion quickly caught up with his brisk pace.

“Where are we going?”  Xion asked.

“Home,” Saïx and Axel said simultaneously.  Mr. and Mrs. Knight wouldn’t be home during the school day to ask where they were, though they would both undoubtably receive absence notices from their afternoon classes.  Saïx didn’t know what would happen in regards to Roxas and Xion; there hadn’t been time for him to properly check them out.  Hopefully Mrs. Flora would make sure that was taken care of.

As they rushed through the auditorium’s surrounding hallways, Saïx wondered again what exactly they were trying to escape from.  Lord Xehanort was second-in-command to Ansem the Wise, the governor of Radiant Garden.  By fleeing from Xehanort – who shouldn’t even know they were here – were they running from their own government?  Was their government truly despicable enough to run from?  It was still difficult to believe the experiments Axel claimed had happened there, but Saïx had no way to dispute it, especially when Axel’s magic was proof enough.

Axel stopped suddenly, shoes squeaking on the clean tile floor. “You smell that?”

That was a code as well as a question – Roxas and Xion summoned their keyblades and took stances guarding Axel and Saïx.

“You can’t use those here—!”  But then Saïx smelled it too, over the scents of floor wax and disinfectant.  A damp, moldy scent, like the underside of dumpsters or gutters running with acid rain.

The Heartless were in the building.


	7. Chapter 7

It was a flood, a torrent of black, amorphous bodies.  The Heartless swept through the hallway, heading straight for them.

“There’s too many!”  Axel barked.  “Forget fighting; run!”

Saïx didn’t need a second order.  The children were a little slower, keyblades still clutched in their hands, but they ran behind Saïx and Axel.  If the Heartless caught up, they were prepared to defend themselves.  To anyone else it might have felt uncomfortable to have the nine-year-olds as the first line of defense, but Saïx would have been a fool to argue otherwise.  He couldn’t summon his claymore at will.  In spite of all the Heartless he’d fought with his adopted siblings, at this moment he was utterly useless.

At least Axel could use his magic; he kept glancing over his shoulder and combusting a few Shadows at a time whenever he had the chance.  Roxas and Xion quickly caught on, blasting them with beams of light as they ran.

“Left!”  Saïx called, since he was the only one paying full attention to the hallway in front of them.  They turned the corner, practically skidding on the tile, and the Shadows crashed like a tidal wave behind them.

“Axel!”  Roxas called, falling behind, the dark wave gaining on him.  “How much farther?  I can’t—”

“Yes you can!”  Axel desperately yelled back.

“Even if we make it out,” Saïx asked, nearly panting from exhaustion himself, “where will we go?  They will still—”

Suddenly Axel dived sideways towards a classroom door, yanking down the handle.  The door didn’t budge.  “Xion!”

She knew what he meant; a beam of light shot from her extended keyblade.  Axel flung the door open, and Saïx rushed in after them, but Roxas—

“Axel!  Saïx!”

The Heartless clawed at the boy’s heels; he swung his keyblade wildly behind him, but he was hopelessly outnumbered.

After a split second of hesitation, Saïx darted back out, grabbed the collar of his brother’s shirt, and pulled him inside.  Axel slammed the door behind them, fumbling with the lock.  A Shadow had phased halfway through the door before the lock’s protection expelled it.  Still, their collective hissing and moldy reek filtered in.

“That…”  Axel gasped for breath, “was close.”

“Clearly,” Saïx responded as the younger children clustered close to him and Axel.  “Do you have any theory on why they can’t come into a locked room?”

Axel shook his head.  “Still haven’t figured that out.  What I’m more worried about is what so many of them are doing out here in the daylight.”

That was definitely a reason to worry.

“I bet it’s _his_ fault,” Roxas hissed, carefully casting Cure over his scratches.

“Xehanort?”  The odds did seem much too low for it to be a coincidence.  For all their Heartless drills, a horde like that had never attacked the school before, much less breached the walls.

“Who else?”  Axel glowered from his seat on top of a teacher’s desk.  Saïx had never needed to come to this annex of the auditorium building, but from the Shakespeare and Broadway posters plastered on every wall, it was likely a drama classroom.

“I’m just glad we’re safe,” Xion said, leaning into her brother’s side.

‘Safe’ was a generous word.  Saïx could still hear – and smell – the Heartless lurking outside the door.  Scratching against the door… maybe they couldn’t pass through a lock, but if they tried, could they break down the whole door?

“What do we do now?”  Saïx asked.  “They have us trapped.  Only Roxas and Xion have weapons.  And for all we know, Xehanort is still in the building.”

Axel dropped his head in his hands.  “And I was worried about threatening a bunch of fourth graders…”

“Snap out of it,” he told him, standing up to pace the floor.  “Think.  What are our options?”

“There’s a window,” Xion pointed out, but Saïx shook his head.

“No.  The windows are shatterproof glass, and won’t open without a code.  Standard security to keep Heartless from getting in.”

“That’s stupid!”  Roxas exclaimed.  “The Heartless are already here!”

Saïx frowned.  “Typically the teacher would have the code and evacuate the students if necessary, but obviously they have already evacuated.”

“But what if someone got left behind like us?”  Roxas added, pacing the same trail behind Saïx.  “Stupid!”

“Well, I never said it was the most foolproof plan…”

Axel got up, searching the room for anything that might be of use.  That wasn’t a bad idea, especially if it was a drama room.  The school wouldn’t allow weapons, of course, but maybe with the drama department’s props and some ingenuity….

He opened a closet, hoping to find a supply of potentially usefully objects.  Instead, the door opened out into a large, dark room with scattered boxes and hanging ropes.

“What is it?”  Roxas asked.  It took Saïx a moment to figure it out himself.

“I believe it’s backstage.”

“A way out?”  Xion jumped up in excitement.

“Wait.”  Axel held out an arm, keeping Roxas and Xion from dashing towards the open door.  “This leads to behind the stage.  Where _Xehanort_ is.”

“Surely they have evacuated by now,” Saïx said.  “The assembly wouldn’t continue under threat of Heartless attack.”

“…I guess not,” Axel agreed uncertainly.  “But we’d better be quiet, just in case.”

He nodded.  “Of course.  Now let’s go, before any Heartless find this entrance.”

Axel, Roxas, and Xion followed behind him.  They didn’t dare try to find a light switch, but the younger children held orbs of light in their hands, like glowing beacons.  It allowed Saïx to see within about a ten-foot radius.  Hopefully nothing lay lurking around the edge of that…

From what he could see, the backstage was a cluttered but fairly straight hallway.  Costumes, props, and set pieces for the high schools’ upcoming musical _Aladdin_ seemed to be scattered haphazardly.  He nearly tripped over a rolled-up “magic carpet.”  A backdrop of an Arabian night glittered with specks of silver paint that reflected Roxas and Xion’s light.  Under other circumstances it might have been pretty, but with the threat of dark creatures just outside his sight, the painted stars only reminded him of the Heartless’ glowing eyes.

Xion shivered; the light orb in her palm flickered.  “Saïx… something feels wrong…”

As she spoke, a chill ran down his spine.  Was it just apprehension, or did the temperature actually drop a few degrees?

“Shh.”  He stopped, straining his ears.  Footsteps, heavier than his siblings’.  The steps silenced when the others stopped to listen.

Sharp shadows outlined Axel’s face as his eyes scanned the edge of the light.  Without any verbal communication, the group of four formed a square, each facing outward.  Saïx felt pretty ridiculous, facing the darkness unarmed… he reached down to grab a prop scepter off of the ground—

—and Xion shrieked.

“Xion!”  Axel called, spinning around too late to intercept a Blizzaga spell that came flying out of the darkness.  Ice shot up her legs, encased her chest and arms.

“Heartless?”  Saïx asked, but the smell of darkness was distinctly absent.

“Not a Heartless,” Axel growled, summoning fire to his palms.  “Just a freak without a heart.”

In the slight extra light Axel’s fire added, Saïx could now see the glint of a self-assured grin lurking just inside the darkness.  Roxas snarled like a wounded wolf, but was frozen solid before he could lunge towards the mysterious figure.

“That’s no way to speak of your elders, TS _VIII_.”  The man stepped into the light, knocking Axel aside with something that looked like a giant shield.

“Axel!”  Xion and Roxas called together, straining to wriggle free, crack the ice binding them.

“Saïx, do something!”  Roxas yelled.

What was he supposed to do?  The strange man in the white lab coat had both magic and a weapon; Saïx had neither.  Well, he had the fake scepter.  He bared it, sliding between the man and Axel.  If he could buy Axel some time to unfreeze Roxas and Xion…

“Who are you?”  Saïx demanded, trying to make his voice as authoritative and confident as possible.  He was surprised that it actually came out the way he intended.

_“Scum,”_ Axel hissed, shoving himself to his feet.  _“That’s_ what he is.”

_Not helping,_ Saïx thought.  _Let me do the talking…_

The man sneered.  “So says the insolent lab-rat-turned-street-rat.”  He cast a spell towards Saïx when he thought he was off-guard, but Saïx dodged behind the frozen Xion.  It wasn’t like she could be much more frozen, he figured.  Still, his stalling wasn’t working well enough.

“What do you want with us?”  Saïx tried again, eyes scanning the part of the room still illuminated with the keybearers’ light, which was also encased in ice.  The exit sign glowed faintly in the distance, so close, but so far.

“I see no need to tell you.  You will see soon enough.”  His sneer turned to a sick grin, making his gaunt cheekbones even more pronounced.  “But I presumed you would be less ignorant, _dear_ Saïx.  Do you not feel even the slightest bit nostalgic?”

“N-nostalgic?”  The scepter dropped slightly.  “What reason would I have to feel nostalgic?”

The scientists’ green eyes seemed to bore through him.  “Hmm.  So the experiment has proven my theory incorrect.  Then the witch has even greater power than we thought—”

Saïx finally tuned out his monologue, using the opening to jab his scepter past the scientist’s shield and into his solar plexus.

“Urk-!”  When he doubled over, Saïx stabbed the base of the scepter into the ice holding Xion to the floor, assisting her in finally cracking it.  Axel shot a jet of flames towards Roxas.  While the boy flinched, it melted the ice enough for him to struggle free.

No one had to shout “run!” – all four siblings were already sprinting for the exit, stumbling over lose props and ice crystals.

The man’s laugh echoed behind them, high-pitched and grating.  “You’re still under the microscope!  Where do you think you can run?”

Growling, Axel shot a burst of fire behind him.  A shriller-than-expected shriek pierced the air.

“Don’t look back,” the redhead warned, green eyes reflecting the light of the exit sign.

Saïx didn’t plan on it.  He kept his gaze focused ahead until they burst through the door into the hallway.  He thought they might have a chance to catch their breath, but Axel, Roxas, and Xion kept running.  Xion cast a Cure spell to restore his stamina.

“Thank you,” he said, putting on speed.  She smiled but didn’t reply; she was busy pushing her legs as fast as they could go.

“Whoa!”  Roxas called out, ducking under a Darkball that swooped for his head.

“Ugh, they’re still here?”  Axel set it on fire, only for two more to chatter down in its place.

“Should have expected as much,” Saïx muttered, glancing over his shoulder, where more Heartless were melting out of the floor and ceiling.  Roxas and Xion summoned their keyblades, but Axel shook his head.

“Keep running!  We can’t fight them all!”

“Where are we running to?”  Xion shouted.

“The secret place,” he replied, as quietly as he could while still being heard over their pounding footsteps.

“We need to go home!”  Saïx argued.  “Mom and Father-!”

“They _know,_ Saï!  They’ll find us there; that’s why Vexen said we couldn’t hide!”

_Vexen_.  So _that_ was the “scum’s”name.

Saïx wanted to argue, wanted to make sure his parents were alright, but it was enough effort to keep running without putting extra strain on his lungs.  And as much as he hated to admit it, Axel was right.  With the three of them now in the school system, it couldn’t be too difficult for Vexen to find their records, track their address—

Xion tripped.  Saïx nearly dominoed over her, but stopped just in time.  Unfortunately, the Heartless never tripped, never stopped.

“I’ve got you.”  Saïx scooped her up with the arm that wasn’t holding the scepter, trying to ignore the cold stench of darkness breathing down his neck.  Xion shot an Aero spell over his shoulder to push the Heartless back and buy some time.

“C’mon, Saï!  We’re almost there!”

Sure enough, there was a light at the end of the hallway.  An open door.  If they could just get to the other side, make the Heartless funnel through that door, they might have a chance of taking them out…

_Because I can do so much damage with this fake weapon,_ Saïx scoffed at his own plan.  He pushed the thought away and focused on running.  If he couldn’t think of something, Axel would.  That was how it worked.

Even though Xion was fairly light, those last few yards to the door felt like agony.  Not for the first time, he regretted never taking any athletics outside of the mandatory Physical Education.  If only he’d known that fighting and running for his life would one day be a daily occurrence.

“I can run by myself,” Xion said, though she still clung to his neck.

“No time.  I’ve… got you,” he groaned, shifting her so she wasn’t making the scepter dig into his shoulder.  Maybe he should have dropped it earlier, but even a fake weapon provided some peace of mind over no weapon at all.

“Almost there!”  Axel called back to him and Roxas.  “We can make it!”

Saïx wasn’t so sure.  A Darkball snapped at the back of his hair; he swore it actually bit off a few locks, but he couldn’t look back to see.  Xion shot it in the face with a Blizzaga spell, and it flew backwards.

Finally, they burst from dim fluorescence into bright sunlight.

“We made it!”  Roxas cheered through heavy breaths.  Saïx gently set Xion on her feet.

“They’re still coming,” he said, turning back towards the door…

Only the Heartless _weren’t_ coming.  The door sealed itself with a heavy _click._

“Hello, Roxas, Axel, Xion.  And Saïx, correct?”  A shorter man with slate-colored bangs appeared from… Saïx couldn’t tell where.  There wasn’t any cover he could see, but he was sure the man hadn’t been there a moment ago.

“Another one?”  Saïx whispered to Axel.

“’Fraid so.”  His face was set harshly, like he didn’t know how to get out of this, but he was going to go down trying.

“Zexion,” Xion whimpered.  “I thought…  I thought you were…”

Zion adjusted his lab coat, pushed his bangs away to reveal another glinting blue eye.  “It can’t be helped, XIV.  Surely you must have known this was going to happen?”

As he spoke, a thick pair of muscular arms reached out and surrounded Xion, dragging her backwards into… what _was_ that?  Some sort of swirling black hole—

“ _Xion!”_ Axel and Roxas cried, each grabbing one of her arms, but her captor easily batted them back.   And he was wearing the uniform of a castle guard… if Saïx had any doubt of the government’s involvement in this, this new man erased it.

But it was broad daylight – how did they expect to get away with this?

“ _HELP!”_ Saïx shouted with all the strength he had left, hoping someone, anyone would come—

“Help will not be coming,” Zexion answered, almost apologetically – which only made Saïx hate him more.  “Your hope is as much of an illusion as what any innocent bystanders will see and hear.”

“What-?”

“ _No!”_ Xion struggled, kicking, biting, and shooting magic with all her might.  It all bounced off of the muscular man like she was nothing more than a fly.  Saïx tried whacking him over the head with the scepter, but all he had to do was grab it in one hand and snap it in half, like a toothpick.  The other arm remained locked around Xion’s middle the whole time.

“I can’t—I won’t go back!”  She screamed.  “Let _go!”_

“ _ARGH_!”  Axel dived for the guard again, but too late.  He disappeared through the portal without a word, Xion’s lingering scream the only evidence that they had ever been there at all.

_“Xion!”_ Roxas cried, trying to grab the portal in his fists before it dissolved into thin air.  “Xi… Xion…”

Saïx just stared, empty hands clenching into fists.  “How… how…?”

Fire swirled around Axel’s hands.  His chest rose and fell in heavy breaths as slowly turned to face Zexion.  “You…”  Flames danced in his eyes.  “You are going to wish you’d never been _born!”_

With his outburst, a pillar of fire erupted from the concrete ground.  Zexion retreated a few steps back, his only visible eye wide.

“Three against one,” Saïx added, glowering with all his might.  “Not bad odds.”  They would be better if he could summon a weapon, or some of that berserk rage, but he’d learned by now that it only came with the light of the moon.  This broad daylight granted him nothing.

“You _give me back_ my _SISTER!”_ Roxas roared with surprising ferocity for a nine-year-old.  If Saïx were Zexion, he’d be running by now, not standing there fumbling with some weird device…

“If you kill me, you’ll never find her!”  He called out, still pressing buttons.  It was some sort of cube, but Saïx had no idea what it could do.  And he didn’t want to find out.

“We’ll take our chances,” Axel said, shooting a blast of fire bigger and more explosive than any Saïx had ever seen before.  His and Roxas’s clothes started to smoke and catch fire; Saïx employed the standard stop-drop-and-roll he’d had ingrained in him since childhood.  Roxas wasn’t quite as quick.

“Axel!”  He yelled.  “Axel, you’re hurting us!”

Axel didn’t hear.  The grass combusted; everything was heat and shimmering reds and oranges; burning, suffocating…

“Axel!”  Saïx called, coughing from the smoke.  “Stop, _now!”_

His bellow was just enough to snap his brother out of it.  “Oh, man…”

It was out of control, even for the master of fire.  He ran, grabbing Saïx and Roxas and dragging them through the flames, directing the tendrils of heat away from him as he fled.

Behind him, Saïx watched the trees around the auditorium begin to catch fire.  The building itself went next.

“We’re all getting expelled for this,” he muttered with the last of his energy.

“Xion…”  Roxas whimpered.

“We’ll get her back,” Axel said with determination.  “Whatever it takes.  I promise, we’ll bring her back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, an even worse cliffhanger than last time. Whoops. Should have known that would happen if I kept writing this… Fun times!


	8. Chapter 8

Saïx crashed through the icy waterfall, stumbling to his knees once he landed safely on the other side.

_Safe,_ he mentally scoffed, shivering on the cold concrete ground.  _How can any of us be safe…?_

Roxas collapsed in a crying heap over his knees.  “X-Xi-ion…”  He whimpered into Saïx’s shirt.  Thoughtlessly he ran a hand over his younger brother’s head.  He felt disconnected from his emotions, like he was watching from outside of himself.

_They kidnapped a nine-year-old girl,_ he had to repeat to himself, just to convince himself it truly happened.  _They kidnapped my sister… my mother’s only daughter…_

Deeper in the hidden cave, Axel was screaming, roaring, lobbing fireballs at the damp walls, filling the room with hazy clouds of steam.

_“I’m—such a—freaking—_ FAILURE _!”_ Each shout was punctuated with a blast of flame.

Saïx shook his head.  “There was nothing we could have done…”

Axel’s silhouette heaved with deep breaths, breaths that quickly evolved into growls.  “Yes we could!”  He snapped, flaring up again.  “We could have done _something!”_

“Calm down.  You’ll set your clothes on fire,” Saïx warned, since it was the only rational, practical advice he could think of.  Saying that out loud helped him calm his own thoughts, too.

“Don’t tell me to calm down!”  Axel only blazed hotter, fire rocketing from his hands up to his shoulders, where the sleeves had already been turned to ash.  “My sister’s been _kidnapped!_ Xion’s _gone!”_

“And it will only be more difficult to save her if you burn your clothes off,” he pointed out, helping Roxas over to a makeshift bed constructed of fabric scraps and cardboard.  After months of neglect, however, the bones of small birds and rodents lined the inside, like a family of cats had made their home there recently.

“The ground’s fine,” Roxas mumbled, sniffling.

“You’ll catch pneumonia,” Saïx replied, searching for anything else to make a bed.  He would have used his coat, but it was thoroughly soaked from the waterfall.  He pulled it off and laid it out to ‘dry.’

“I don’t care.”  Roxas curled up in a ball, arms squeezing his knees to his chest.  “Xion’s gone.  Xi’s gone…”

“You heard Axel,” Saïx said.  “We will bring her back… somehow,” he ended weakly.

Axel skulked out from the back of the cave, his magic finally exhausted.  “…Yeah,” he mumbled in agreement.  “This isn’t over.”  His voice grew steadier, back to his usual Axel-like confidence.  He punched his fist into his hand.  “I say we storm the castle, take ‘em by surprise—”

“—And get ourselves killed,” Saïx finished.  He’d expected this; honestly, he was surprised Axel hadn’t suggested brainlessly rushing in sooner.  “We’re no help to Xion dead.  We need a plan.”

Axel crossed his arms.  “Oh, yeah?  You got one of those worked out in that big brain of yours?”

Saïx looked down at the slimy floor.  “Not yet,” he admitted.

“That’s what I thought.”  Sighing, Axel plopped cross-legged on the ground beside Roxas.

“You have a brain too,” Saïx pointed out.  “You have been inside the castle before.  That knowledge will be invaluable.”  In fact, he’d _escaped_ the castle before.  If he had the ingenuity to get out once, surely they could do it in reverse.

Axel raised an eyebrow.  “You saying we _should_ storm the castle?”

“Not the way you’re thinking,” he clarified.  “You saw that large man—”

“Lexaeus,” Roxas piped up with a snivel.  “He’s Zexion’s bodyguard.”

“Thank you, Roxas,” he nodded in acknowledgement, then continued.  “You saw Lexaeus.  We can’t fight more guards like him, not if they can appear and disappear with those – what were those portals?”

“They call ‘em DCs.  Dark Corridors,” Axel explained.  “They found a way to use the same kind of magic Heartless do to appear and disappear.  Tested them on us more than once,” he muttered bitterly, sharing a shuddering glance with Roxas.  “That’s what Zexion was doing with that metal box.  It’s how they control the DCs.”

A few things suddenly made much more sense now.  “Do you believe he escaped, then?”

Axel shrugged.  “I hope not.”

Saïx’s stomach churned uneasily.  To talk about killing someone, with no visible remorse… but these scientists had kidnapped his sister; she could be facing a fate worse than death as they spoke.  The thought prompted him to dig deeper for any viable idea.

"I need to know what we are up against,” he decided.  “Tell me about Vexen first.”

_“Vexen,”_ Axel spat.  “He’s up there with Xehanort himself.  Head scientist, gave himself some lame ice powers, Xion’s… well, he created her.”  His eyes grew dark.  “Probably has her back in that disgusting tank now…”

“I hate him,” Roxas added in a low voice.

“Focus,” Saïx told them as well as himself.  As long as he was working towards a solution, he could hold off his anger.  He couldn’t risk it getting out of hand, not with twilight approaching.  Going berserk wouldn’t help anyone here.  “We need information we can use…”  The complicated part was that he wasn’t entirely sure what counted as useful.  “…He mentioned that I might feel… nostalgic.  He also mentioned a witch.  Do you have any idea what that might mean?”

Axel’s brow wrinkled.  “Not a clue, but I wouldn’t read too much into it,” he brushed it off.  “Probably just some psycho-crap.”

“Hmm…”  Saïx wasn’t so sure, but if Axel didn’t know, he had no other way to find out.  “Alright.  Then let’s move on to Zexion.”

“He can create illusions.  That’s why no one could hear you call for help – he just blocked us off from anyone’s senses.  Completely.  Like we didn’t even exist.”  The redhead scowled at the ground.  “He used to use the illusions to test us.  Make us think we were dying, see how our bodies would react…”  He curled up like Roxas, looking so vulnerable for a second, Saïx could hardly tell he was the same person.

“Then we want to stay as far away from him as possible.”

“Yeah.  Get _that_ memorized,” Axel agreed.  “He can’t do too much without his book, though.  That’s why he didn’t fight back when I attacked him…”

“What?”  Saïx asked when he trailed off.

“Why wouldn’t he bring it?  I mean, if they knew they were going to capture us…”

“Perhaps they didn’t?”  Saïx frowned.  That seemed unlikely, considering how prepared the scientists had been otherwise. “They hardly tried to capture _us_ at all.  It seemed as if—”

“They just wanted Xion,” Roxas mumbled.  “Right?”

“…I guess,” Axel considered.  “The rest of us were just prototypes; she was the one they were putting their hopes on.  Their most successful experiment – until we freed her.  So maybe…”

“…They want to finish what they started,” Saïx finished.  Axel and Roxas shared a despairing glance.

“When we were escaping the castle the first time, we saw their plans for her,” Axel said grimly.  “Believe me, it wasn’t pretty.”

“We can’t let them hurt her.  We won’t.” Roxas clenched his fists.

“That’s the spirit,” Axel cracked a weak grin.

“And that’s why we need a plan,” Saïx stood, pacing.  If only he had some paper, this would feel much more organized… or even if he had his phone, he could type out a note.  Unfortunately, it must have slipped out of his pocket when they were escaping Axel’s fire.  Which meant he couldn’t contact his parents, either.  He glanced out towards the cave’s mouth, where a small sliver of black sky peeked around the crashing waterfall.  _Mom will be home by now… she must be sick with worry…_

Now he was the one who needed to focus.  He shook his head.  _Plan…_ But thinking of his mom reminded him of something.

“We have to go back home.”

Axel bristled at the suggestion.  “You know they’ll find us there.  Sheesh, I thought you were supposed to be the smart one.”

“Our weapons are there,” Saïx reminded him.  “You may have your fire, but as long as I remain unarmed, I’m of no use to you.  Or to Xion.”

“But—”

“Axel,” Roxas interrupted.  “He’s right.  You need to fight.  You need your weapons.”

The young keybearer was the only one left with a weapon.  Putting the main offensive responsibilities on him would be cruel, and Axel knew it.

“…Fine,” he relented.  “But you’re staying here, Rox.”

“What?!”  Roxas uncurled from his ball.  “No way!”

“We can’t risk them capturing both our keybearers,” Saïx agreed. 

“But what about you?”  He argued.  “You don’t have anything!  They’ll catch you for sure!”

“I am a regular human,” Saïx pointed out.  “They have no use for me.”

“Except that berserk thing you do…”  Axel mumbled.  “And if they don’t need you, they can always just kill you.  Roxas is right-”

“Yeah!”

“-I should go alone.”

“What?  No!”  Roxas clutched Axel’s ash-covered wrist.  “Don’t leave us, Axel!”

Saïx frowned.  “Hmm…”  _It would be much easier if there were four of us… but that would defeat the purpose, wouldn’t it?_ “I must go,” he decided.  “I have to see my parents one last time, just in case…” he swallowed the lump forming in his throat.

Axel’s expression softened.  “…I get it.  Come on, then.”

“We’re going now?”  Saïx asked in surprise.

“No point in waiting.  It’s dark; they might not be looking now.  And I’d rather have my chakrams when the Heartless show up.”

Saïx nodded. “Fair point.”  He still didn’t feel prepared, but until he retrieved his weapon, he likely never would.  If only he had another fireplace poker laying in reserve.

Roxas stood up, pouting.  “What about me?”

“You’ll be safe here.  You’ve got your keyblade, and you can hide in the back of the cave if you need to.” Axel ruffled his brother’s hair and made him a small fire for warmth. “Don’t worry, we’ll be back before you can say ‘Axel’s the best big brother ever.’”

Saïx rolled his eyes.  “If only we could use your ego as a weapon.”

“Yeah, it’d be pretty awesome… hey!”

Roxas watched them as they walked towards the waterfall.  “…Bye…”

“See ya later, Rox.”  Axel grinned.  “Be safe.”

“Goodbye, Roxas,” Saïx said, and then the two older siblings leapt through the waterfall.

He swore that even through the crashing roar of the falls, he could hear Roxas whisper, _“Axel and Saïx are the best big brothers ever…”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before or not, but Axel’s fireproof. His clothes aren’t, though.
> 
> Next will be a flashback chapter!


	9. Flashback - Roxas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Flashback from Roxas’s POV, picks up about where the last flashback left off.

“Come on, Roxas, we’ve gotta get out of here!”

I heard Axel.  He was right.  But he had to see…

“Zexion’s coming!  _Move!”_ Axel ran back to drag me away, but then he finally saw what I was looking at.  “ _…Kairi?”_

“We have to help her,” I said.  She blinked at me, looking confused.  Didn’t she remember me?  I thought she’d be happy…

Why did the scientists have to chase us?  I could hear their footsteps running down the hallway.

“Well then don’t just stand there; do something!”  Axel sung his chakrams at the orange, bubbly tank.  The girl flinched, but it didn’t even leave a scratch.

I summoned my keyblade.  Axel was a lot stronger than me, Vexen’stests even said so.  But my weapon could sometimes do things he couldn’t, so I tried anyway.  It bounced off with an angry _clang._ It didn’t like the glass.  I would _make_ it like the glass.  Kairi was my friend, I thought she was dead but she was here and I _wouldn’t_ leave her.

Axel grabbed the hilt of my keyblade, looking me in the eyes.  “Together.”

I nodded.

“One—two—”

_“Halt!”_

“—Three!”  Axel called, ignoring Zexion’s yell.  We stabbed the key forward, as hard as we both could, into the glass.

“No—!”  Zexion yelled, but the shatter was louder.  Orange goop spilled all over us.  Kairi flailed and spilled out too, like she didn’t know how to stand up without the wires and goop holding her in place.

Axel scooped her up, but now that she wasn’t inside the orange, she didn’t look so much like Kairi.  Her hair was black, not red.  Maybe they changed her somehow.

I didn’t have time to think about it; we had to run away from Zexion.  But the orange goop was slippery –

I slid across the ground, into Axel, and he fell too.  Maybe-not-Kairi groaned, blinking open her eyes.  Outside of the tank, they looked… like mine?

“So close, yet so far away.”  Zexion laughed shakily, ruffling the pages of his scary book.  He was going to catch us in his mind-tricks, all because of stupid orange goop… and because I didn’t listen when Axel said run.  But it was Kairi; I couldn’t leave her… only maybe it wasn’t Kairi.  Was it a trap?  Were we in a mind-trick already?

The floor melted away.  If we weren’t before, we were now.  The ground turned into purple-blue fog, like in our testing.  This was going to hurt; Zexion was going to punish us, would I have to fight a Darkside again—?

“Nngh… H-Hairface?”  Fake-Kairi studdered.  Her voice didn’t sound the same as Kairi’s either.  “Wh-why are we…?”  She touched her mouth, like she wasn’t sure how it worked.  Zexion frowned at her.

“I apologize, Xion.  You were not meant to come into contact with these mistakes.”

_“Mistakes?!”_ Axel yelled, catching on fire.  He was scary when he did that, but Zexion wasn’t scared enough.

“A-Axel?”  Not-Kairi – Xion? – grabbed her head, crying out in pain.  “Who—why—?”

“It is of no importance.”  Zexion waved his hand, and Axel flew back, into the darkness.

“Axel!”  I called for him.  He wasn’t really gone, right?  This was just a mind-trick, he was fine…

“R-Roxas?”  Xion whimpered.  How did she know me?  Who _was_ she?

“Shh.  Pay your other half no mind,” Zexion told her.  For a second, he actually sounded nice.

Then he waved towards me, and I flew into the dark.


End file.
